


You and I see eye to eye

by Reload_Paige



Series: Cirice [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2018-12-31 20:09:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 27,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12140160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reload_Paige/pseuds/Reload_Paige





	1. Chapter 1

Tony woke up, again. "If I thought you would disturb my rest all night , I would have slept alone." Loki grumbled as he was woken by Tony. Again.

"I'm sorry, but I keep dreaming about what happened .I don't know why it isn't affecting you. Talking about it must have stirred up all kinds of really bad memories."Tony apologised. "I keep thinking about Afghanistan and ....him. Stane" 

"But you're here. And I only have good memories of you, now." Loki said, soothingly. "Now, do you trust me? With your mind?"

"What do you mean? With my mind?" Tony didn't squeak , but it was close. 

Loki laid on his back and pulled Tony into his side, against his chest. Tony snuggled down getting comfortable. Loki drew another sigil on his check. "This will ward off bad dreams." He wrapped one arm around Tony and started to tell another story, this one was vaguely known to Tony. It was one of the Eddas JARVIS had downloaded and played for him. But it was being told different with all the missing parts. Loki was a natural story-teller. The rhythm was enough to lull Tony back to sleep. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two men eventually woke refreshed and headed to the dining room to see a full house of people. Steve and Pepper were making lunch. Jane was sat on a love -seat crying while Darcy was trying to comfort her. Clint was pestering Rhodey who looked like he was about to hit some-one. Coulson and Hill were talking to Natasha while an older man was sat with Bruce. Ian was making coffee.

"Tony, come met Dr Selvig, "Bruce called. He introduced the two men. The groups waxed and waned as the meal preparations continued. Eventually Loki ended up next to Jane. "Where is your boyfriend, Dr Foster?" Neville asked politely.

Jane started to cry again, "He's had to return to Asgard. His father needs him to repair the damage that his brother caused somehow. Then, and only then ,may he return. He's talking about 6 months or a year or even longer. I know his father is trying to .."

"Your boyfriend is over there, Mr Evans, "Darcy spat , gesturing towards Tony. "Mine is bringing us coffee. Now move."

Lunch ended up being a buffet affair. Tony and Loki ended up perched on bar stools, sharing what food they had manage to acquire between them. The bubble of noise rose and fell as every-one was finally sated and people started to leave. 

Jane's group was the first to go with Darcy shooting poisonous glares at Neville. Selvig promising to send Tony more of their findings.

Coulson, Hill, Clint and Natasha followed about 15 minutes later. Hill had been watching Neville covertly for some time.

Bruce was next. Tony was trying to persuade him to stay. But he didn't want to be too close to SHIELD for too long. But Bruce and Tony made lots of extravagant promises about keeping in touch. Most of which both meant.

Tony and Loki cleared up while Rhodey and Steve talked about the differences in their military training. Pepper was sorting out papers for Tony to look at. She kept sending curious glances at Neville.

"Sorry Tony, every-one arrived late last night. After you and Neville had retired. JARVIS didn't want to disturb you. I guess you were..'Steve stuttered to a halt. 

"Sleeping, in a non-sexual way. Both of us were tired."Tony said. 

Pepper handed some papers to Loki and asked him to give them to Tony. Tony took then without hesitation. Rhodey looked at Pepper in surprise. "I have to leave now, "he said. 

"Can I get a lift? It will save Happy getting a car ready for me."Pepper asked. 

"Sure. Bye Tony. I'll get in touch. You know my bosses still want the upgraded War-Machine bigger and better. More powerful, faster than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.."Rhodey mocked.

"Go...I'll do something with your suit, Rhodey.."Tony responded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
The sudden silence was deafening. Steve broke it by saying, "I'm sorry about this Tony but every-one wanted to see Bruce off. I would have woken you earlier but JARVIS wouldn't let me in. "  
He turned to Loki sombrely."Thor came over as well. Very late. It was after you went to bed. He created one heck of a storm. It took out several blocks. He is not happy. He's having to travel all over the place tidying up after you, or so he says."  
Steve turned back to Tony."Pepper opened up most of the Tower so there was power and shelter available for those who needed it. And the staff washrooms. She also opened the staff canteen and got hot food and drinks made so that anyone who needed something could get it."

"Cool. Remind me to get her something nice. Oh..one of those fruit baskets. Order one of those and get them to add extra strawberries. I know she likes them. Thanks JARV."

"Ms Potts doesn't like strawberries, sir. In fact she has an allergy to them." JARVIS reported."I have ordered that ruby necklace she pointed out to me last week, instead."

"She is? Why didn't she tell me?" Tony queried."Thanks anyway J. I'm going to go and ...No I'm taking my boyfriend out. Where do you want to go, Lokie-Dokie?"

"I have no idea. This is your realm. Your America. I was here when there was none of this. All open spaces and few people. Fen and I ran for hours. Sleipnir adored it." Loki said, looking nostalgic.  
"Central Park then" Tony suggested. "Oh maybe not. That's where you went home last time...I know , let's hit up some museums and then Greenwich Village. Supper and maybe a nightclub later. " 

"There's a lot of people still downstairs, Tony. You may want to avoid them . Security had to get a bit tough getting rid of some of the homeless people who crowded in. " Steve said. "I talked to Sam since there were a couple of vets amongst them. He's going to be working with Pepper and Rhodey to get some kind of appeal going in my name for them."

"Oh...Get Pepper to set up a training and rehabilitation unit for vets will you, J? Tell HR to employ some . That'll look good. " Tony ordered.

 

"Sir, we already have done that. However it's part of the September Foundation as the Stark name isn't looked on favourably amongst many veterans' groups .Half of the surviving members of the convoy which you were part of before the attack are currently employed by SI. The other two refused any offers of our help. Instead, Hammer Industries took them in."JARVIS responded.

"Brutal, "Loki muttered. 

"Shhh, you." Tony responded. "You don't know what HI is. So...let's go down. Show our faces to the masses. Let them take lots of pictures and such. It's a shame the rest of the gang left earlier. It would have looked good . The Avengers comforting the displaced. We'd have to play down the Thundery God reason why they were displaced..Big smiles and happy faces."

"I don't think this is a good idea Tony" Steve started.

"Oh I know you don't think, capiscle." Tony retorted dragging Loki out of the room. Steve followed for lack of any other option.


	2. Chapter 2

The atmosphere in the lobby was strained. Tony affected to not notice it but both Loki and Steve could feel the underlying hostility . Steve pulled Loki aside, "Can you do anything?"and made a vague hand gesture.

"Like what?" Loki asked, wondering what the hand gesture was supposed to mean.

"Magic, you know try to make them less angry or something similar, "Steve responded. Again the hand gesture.

Loki recoiled in horror."I cannot do that. That was the Mind Stone. I can influence some-one who is susceptible but it takes a lot of energy and in this situation where there are many people around, it wouldn't work. "

Steve sighed and worked his way round the room, talking to different people. He'd hoped Loki would have been able to help if only for Tony's sake. Steve didn't have the same talent to mix with people as Tony did but the tension in the room was starting to calm.

A burst of laughter followed by a round of applause had Steve spinning to see Loki stood surrounded by a group of children to whom he was showing magic tricks. Loki seemed to be in his element. The good nature of the group seemed to be spreading. That and the announcement that power had finally been restored. 

People were moving with more purpose now. One or two people needed a bit of firm handling but the majority were leaving peacefully. SI staff were handing out parcels of food to those deemed to be in need, families mainly. 

The sounds of some-one using crutches came closer to the two Avengers and their former foe. A young woman stood in front of them. "Mr Stark, Captain Rogers, sir. I wanted to thank you in person Mr Stark for what you did for me."

Tony looked stricken, "I thought every-one in the convoy had died. When Pepper told me that there were survivors, I had her look for them and take care of them for me. I'm sorry...I'm so very sorry. "

"Mr Stark..I was doing my duty. All of us were. I know some of the others disagree with me due to you stopping creating weapons. But Ms Potts found us all and offered us jobs and other aides to settling back into civilian life ,"she turned to Steve and saluted. "Captain America, Sir!"

He saluted back, "Thank you for your service, ma'am."  
She held her hand out to Loki who bowed and kissed the back of her hand rather than shaking it."May your name be sung in the sagas that reflect the glory of your cause. May your blades gleam in Valhalla as you feast amongst the chosen." She smiled, hesitantly and left. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ok, it's later than I expected, "Tony said."Central Park is out for today . JARVIS..book me one of those private tours at the Natural History Museum. Pay them to keep it open for us if you have to. Then we'll eat somewhere. Go to a club..Date type things. What you going to do Stevie-boy?"

"Do you mind if I come to the museum with you? I'll leave you after that. "Steve asked. "I just want to get out of the tower for a few hours."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She watched them on the TV as they left the Avengers' Tower. The paparazzi following the trio to the NHM. 

The following day she followed TMZ and similar gossip web-sites and saw photos of Tony and "Neville" . Their dancing together was just short of being porn-worthy. They had left the club in the early hours of the morning. Groping each other and very obviously drunk.

She still didn't know what to do. She gave herself a dead-line of one week. She would write everything down, post it to the people who she thought she could trust and then confront Neville/Loki. She hoped she was right and Loki wasn't trying to take over the world again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony had been feeling reckless. Once Steve had left them, Tony had taken Loki to another Italian restaurant that Maria had taken him to as a child. Then they left or a nightclub. Tony had memberships to all the best and most select clubs around the world. But this was his favourite. 

The pulsating music , the lights the whole atmosphere ...Loki was bedazzled at first. A spell to limit his exposure to the stimulation was all that was needed to make him feel at home. He looked around. Men dancing together. Women dancing together. The few male/female pairs .. Tony passed him a glass of champagne. The fizzy wine went first to his head and then to his libido.

Tony dragged him onto the dance floor and the rest of the evening was spent bumping and grinding. Loki had never danced like this before. It was liberating, he thought. Tony said something about giving the press a field day. There were camera flashes enough to feed a ravenous population of thrill-seekers. 

Eventually the club closed and Happy picked them up. Tony it appeared had abandoned his hands-off policy during the evening. They had spent the car-ride back making out and Tony ...Tony Stark ..His precious mortal, had finally given in.

They were about to consummate their union. Loki's heart started to thaw. He'd been without love for so long. Without the love of an equal. Oh, there had been wenches and Einherjar aplenty during his life. But this short-lived mortal had enraptured his senses. 

Wrapped in each other, Happy had guided them into the elevator. JARVIS made sure they reached the correct floor. Clothes had been dropped along their route. They half staggered , half walked into Tony's bedroom. "privacy at max, J.Ok.thanks."Tony managed to say before Loki plundered his mouth again.

"Silver-tongue" went crashing through his mind as a elegant hand forced its way into his underwear. It was slightly colder than Tony had remembered but more exciting for it. Tony managed another few steps before almost tripping over his own jeans. The strong arm of his own personal deity ensured that he didn't face plant on the floor. 

"Allow me to remove our clothes, " got Tony's drunken muttered agreement .

Loki looked at the figure in his arms. "My love, you are too drunk . We will wait, though it pains me."

"No, lokie-dokes...I wanna really wanna...." the voice faded off into a drunken snore. 

Loki carried his partner to bed. Sometimes he thought the Norns laughed at him. Other times he knew that they actively thwarted him. 

Loki arranged Tony on his bed and slid in beside him. It wasn't only his Jotun form that had blue balls that night.


	3. Chapter 3

Tony opened his eyes and looked at the expanse of pale flesh on which he was laying. Last night was a hazy pile of memories.  
drinking, check,  
dancing, check,  
making out in the car, check  
sex...err...no. 

Tony was pleased that there were no signs of sex. No sticky residues on his skin, no pleasantly pained muscles. Because, he really wanted to be awake and involved with exchanging of body fluids.  
Ye gods...but his head hurt. What had he drunk last night? Champagne..that was a given. Whiskey..yup. Oh and that stuff Loki had in a flask. Mead he called it. Wouldn't let Tony try it...  
So Tony did what Tony could do best..He pick-pocketed Loki's flask and fled to the bathroom . Evil honey tasting hang-over causing mead. 

He groaned. The chest he was laying on heaved as Loki chuckled. Evil giggling god. He moved his aching head slightly and bit down lightly on the tempting nipple before flicking his tongue over it in apology.

"Is that a hint, Anthony? If I cure your self-inflicted malady, then I may enjoy your body? Or you, mine?" Loki teased.  
"You can do that?"Tony groaned."I'd worship you forever if you could. I'd get JARVIS to write sagas praising your greatness ."

"Do not promise that, Anthony. Gods are very possessive of what and who is theirs. I cannot promise to protect you in return for the rest of your life." Loki said. "But I can cure your hang-over, if you want me to."

"Please, Loki. You'll be my new BFF..I'll like you better than the bots." Tony pleaded. "Then can we have sex?"

A faint green glow covered the god's hand as he placed it on Tony's forehead. The pain eased almost instantly and the feeling of nausea went away. Tony could have purred with pleasure. So he did.

"Better, Anthony?" Loki tried to pull his hand away but Tony grabbed it. He interlinked their fingers and kissed the back of Loki's hand before bringing them down under the covers to his dick. Little Tony had been quietly comfortable while Tony was hung-over but since all the symptoms had now gone, the presence of one sexy snowflake had increased the blood flow.

Loki smiled as he took hold of his prize. Tony reached across to reciprocate. Like Loki's fingers, like his skin, like his lips..Loki's dick was slightly colder than Tony. Ice Giant floats across Tony's fading consciousness as primal instincts take over. 

Tony tries to reach under his pillow for some lube. "Patience, love."Loki says quietly and rubs his free hand against Tony's . Slick coated his fingers and he laughed. "You really can fulfil most of my needs." 

"I try my best, "the normally smooth voice was hitching with the initial stages of excitement.  
The two men continued to stoke each other with the slicked hands until Tony gasped, "You said I could.."  
Loki shifted slightly so his legs were open. Tony blinked, "You meant it? You want me to.."

"Of course, now get on with it.."Loki said.' I grow tired of waiting."

Tony was confused. Again. "Lokes..Do you really want this or is this just to repay me?"

Bad move.

"Anthony..you have been teasing me for the past five weeks. If you don't want to have intercourse with me, just say so. There are plenty at SHIELD HQ who find me attractive."The god huffed.

Tony decided to stop thinking and get on with sexing up his god. His fingers ghosted round Loki's hole before one tentatively entered. To the first knuckle, barely in, not moving. Loki appeared to have stopped breathing for a second. Another faint huff gave Tony the impetus to continue. He continued to move his finger in and out, round and round, slowly allowing Loki to get used to the feeling before adding a second.

Tony's mind was using all those semi-forgotten techniques from his experimental years. He kissed and sucked Loki's nipples. Nibbled at his neck. Caressed his dick with his other hand. Played with his balls. The light moans showing Tony was achieving his objective.  
Loki had twisted slightly so he could touch Tony as well. Long fingers stroked Tony's dick mirroring Tony's strokes. His other hand caressed as much of Tony as he could reach. 

As he added a third finger, a new thought crossed his mind. Tony was still scissoring Loki open but was now searching for his prostate. He stopped suddenly. "Lokes..are you the same inside? I mean do you have ? "

"If you stop now, I'll cut your dick off and magic it as a dildo for me to enjoy on my own. Then I shall gut you and we can see if we share similar organs." Loki growled, frustrated.

"That's ..Okay.." Tony said."You ready ?"

One of Loki's legs wrapped round his waist , pulling him closer, 'Yes...Now get on with it.."

Tony guided himself into Loki. Once he'd breeched the hole , he stopped, waiting for permission to proceed. "Norns, Anthony..I've waited 20 years. Get on it ...arrgh"

The soft pleasure sound as Tony finally bottomed out. Tony couldn't get over the warm, tight channel he was in. He had to move. Tony gently eased himself in and out. The leg hitched round his waist tightened and suddenly Tony took total control. 

He pounded into the willing body beneath him. Somehow , Loki's hips had lifted so Tony now had the ability to ..and there it was, if Loki's reactions were anything to be judged by. 

They quickly fell into rhythm that got both of them close, a whined "Please Anthony" had Tony snaking his hand down and stroking Loki's dick in unison to his thrusts. "Come for me, Loki. Come. . That's it sweetheart." as his thrusts became more and more erratic chasing completion. Tony felt warm cum splatter over his hand as Loki surrendered to his orgasm pulling Tony with him.

Tony didn't want to withdraw and the still clutching leg encouraged him to stay even as his dick slowly softened and finally popped out with a depressing sound. Loki was still trying to regulate his breathing. "Well, that wasn't too bad, I suppose." 

Tony rolled onto his back, "Try and stand up."

Loki turned so he was over Tony and kissed him."I'd rather wait for Round Two"

"Round Two?? I'm not going to be ready for that just yet. "Tony protested.

Loki held up a clear flask, golden liquid sloshed inside it..."Trust me?"


	4. Chapter 4

Tony had never felt so sated in his life. His whole body sung with sexual pleasure. He'd lost count after the sixth bout. No, the seventh..That had been the best. Tony had allowed Loki to take him. 

For all of Tony's sexual adventuring, he'd never allowed another man to penetrate him. Loki had been the first, and from now on, the only. He'd read porn and watched it but the feeling of being so filled was new to him. He wanted Loki to do anything and everything to him and with him. Tony felt he could have died happy following that.

Tony knew they had got up to eat at some point on Sunday. Somewhere around bout 5. 

Pizza..yup.

JARVIS had ordered pizza. They'd eaten the food and tumbled back into bed. That golden liquid had invigorated Tony. Tony checked the time. It was now mid-afternoon Monday. They had spent over a day in bed, having the best sex ever. In between the sex, they had dozed, eaten and talked. 

It turned out they had a lot in common. Both felt overlooked by their father in favour of a golden older brother. They are both more intelligent than every-one around them. Both more than willing to break rules to protect those closest to them. And both incredibly lonely. 

As darkness starts to fall, Loki sighed."We must sleep properly I suppose. I have to leave here at 8 in the morning with Natasha and Clint."

Tony pouted, "I should tie you to the bed and keep you here."

"I'd just use Seidr to leave, Anthony, "Loki responded."Though we could try that when I get back."

Tony smiled back. "Let's grab some supper first. I'm sure Steve will have left something edible for us. J, who's in the tower?"

When JARVIS responded that they were the only people in the Avengers part of the tower, they headed to the communal kitchen. As Tony had predicted Steve had left them plenty to eat. Tony cooked a lasagne while Loki made a salad to go with it. A disturbing thought crossed his mind. "Anthony? Will this affect how you are viewed at SHIELD?"  
"What do you mean, Loki?" Tony answered, 'You talking about us sleeping together? Cos I'm pretty sure Fury and Coulson have a bet going on how long it takes us go get serious."

Loki just stared at him, "Oh I guess ..well to be honest Lolo. Fury doesn't think a lot of me anyway. A guy in a suit, Rogers called me. He thought I wasn't the type of person to lay my life down to protect anyone else but I did. I flew a nuke through your wormhole.."

Tony turned his back on Loki, "I nearly died doing that. Do you know what I got out of it? A massive case of PTSD and Pepper eventually leaving me. Oh and the Boy Band being semi-permanent fixtures in my home. But Fury still treats me like an errant school-boy. I'm 99% sure that he knows we have stopped pretending to be in love. " 

Loki had moved behind Tony and wrapped his arms tight around the shorter man's waist and burying his face in Tony's shoulder."I wish I'd never done that. I should have been stronger. I.."

Tony spoke over him, "Woulda, coulda, shoulda. It doesn't matter, Loki. We can't change the past. Think of it as a fixed point in time. You are paying back for it now. Protecting Earth, yeah?"

"That is what Odin wants me to do, "Loki replied."I'm not sure if I will be able to fulfill his wishes to his specifications though. I'm concerned there will be more and more expectations placed on me until I eventually fail."

"You won't fail. I won't let you."Tony promised.

JARVIS interrupted, "Sir. Agents Romanov and Barton have entered the tower."

Loki slid back into his Neville form. Tony noticed that the red-rimmed eyes had vanished but more salad and a decent amount of garlic bread had appeared .A couple of bottles of wine were added to the table as Clint and Natasha entered. "Would you like to join us?" Tony asked. "There's plenty ."

Clint looked at the food suspiciously, "Did you make this, Tony?"

"Steve did. But I made the salad and bread. "Loki said."Tony bought the wine."

Natasha was already pouring herself a glass, "It's what he does best, "she said."Buy things."And stared at Loki for several seconds.

Clint was grabbing a plate and ladling out lasagna , "Hey, Tony fixed my arrows and souped up your Bites. He's trying to create a super-stretchy material with Bruce. Is he going to improve a weapon for you, Neville?"

Tony leered at Loki, "I've seen his weapon. It doesn't need help."

"Crude", Loki chided passing him a plate with salad on it.

Tony heaped on the pasta and grabbed some bread. "Rabbit food? I have the bots to give me that. Tash, your turn." He pushed the dish towards the assassin.

She took a large helping as well. Then some salad and bread. She watched both Tony and Loki eat before starting her food. "Steve's certainly getting more adventurous with his cooking, "She said.

"mis iz ze nest .."Clint swallowed . "This is the best Steve's made so far. Your salad is good too, Neville."

They finished the meal with small talk before Natasha decided that Neville needed a last minute briefing before going to bed. Clint and Tony cleared the kitchen. "Do you want to go and watch them fight?" Clint asked.

"Fight? Why are they fighting?" Tony asked.

"Oh, Tash wants to be in tip top shape for tomorrow. She wants a one-on-one match with your boy. She's never fought him before. She's curious about his abilities in the field."

Tony ran out of the room, heading for the gym.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Natasha took her stance in front of Loki. "Just who are you, Neville? if that's your name. Are you one of Xavier's mutants? You're not HYDRA. Nor are you Russian. "

Loki started to speak but Natasha cut him off, "I can't find anything about you. You're Nick and Phil's pet project. I'm not worried you are going to stab me in the back. I just want to know how much I can trust you with Clint's life."

"You can trust me, Natasha."Loki promised as Natasha launched herself at him.


	5. Chapter 5

By the time Tony and Clint had reached the gym, Natasha and Neville had started sparring. With his new experience of watching Loki fight , Tony can see how much more skilfully Loki is now pulling his punches. He could easily have over-powered Natasha had he wanted to but following Steve's training , he was more fluent than before but his fighting style was different . 

"Neville's been learning capoeira with one of the new trainers, "Clint said. "He's supposed to be good at it. But I can't tell. It's not a method I've studied. He's certainly effective with it." Loki had thrown Natasha for the second time. But Tony had noticed Loki was tired of playing and now allowed Natasha to have the upper hand and finally defeat him.

"Not bad, 'Natasha congratulated him. "How long was that, JARVIS?"

"Seventeen minutes and 23 seconds, Agent Romanov, " the AI replied. "Agent Barton had nineteen minutes and 55 seconds, Captain Rogers fifteen minutes and 38 seconds. Thor defeated you in seven minutes and 2 seconds. Sir has refused to fight you and Dr Banner doesn't wish to let the Other Guy out around the tower."

Natasha sighed, "I'd have liked a shot at Loki . I wonder how long it would have taken me to take him down."

"Extrapolating from Loki's fight with Thor on the balcony I estimate it would take Loki less than 5 minutes to stop you, Agent Romanov since Thor wasn't using his full strength against you and nor he was against Loki." 

"Sorry, "Clint spluttered." Thor won. We saw the replay. "

"Indeed, Loki threw the fight as you would say ". Both Natasha and Clint tuned out as JARVIS droned on about the mathematics of the two brothers fight. Taking into account the Stuttgart fight...Thor versus Tony and Steve in the forest..Thor versus Hulk..yadda yadda...

"I'm sure you could have taken him down, "Clint tried to bolster Natasha . She smiled, she knew had beaten Loki at his own game. That was a more substantial victory. She just wished she could have had the chance to go one on one with him.

"Eight o'clock tomorrow Neville on the Quinjet deck," Natasha said as she and Clint exited the gym.

"Let's go to bed, "Tony suggested with an grin. Loki wasn't pleased but realising he couldn't respond to Natasha and JARVIS at the moment, he followed Tony towards their room. Tony's room, he corrected himself. Loki knew that regardless of his feelings, Tony did not feel the same. Stark was known to flit like a butterfly from woman to woman, woman to man and man back to woman. 

However, Loki had made a deal with him and, despite what Thor might think, Loki was never one to renege on a deal. It wasn't his fault if the people he negotiated with hadn't worked out all the loop-holes. His fingers ghosted over his mouth. The faint scars still dotted his lips, the only sign of a hasty and ill-conceived plan. 

He sighed as he entered the bedroom. These few days with Tony made it harder to leave on the mission. As a youth, he'd followed Thor recklessly from adventure to adventure. Never stopping to consider how it affected his loved ones. Now, he just wanted to stay here. 

He thought idly how much trouble he'd be in if he missed the mission. The tempting thought of using one of his clones was quickly dismissed. He decided that any attempt to not comply with the vague terms of his pseudo-exile on Earth would be foolish. He'd rather spend his time here than risk being sent elsewhere like prison again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony and Steve stood by the Quinjet as it lifted off. "I have a bad feeling about this, "Steve said.

"You some kind of Jedi , now? From what Agent tells me, it's a simple recon mission. Go in, get the Intel and zoom home for supper." Tony said. " Stop being a Debbie Downer."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coulson had briefed the crew while in flight. A suspected HYDRA cell was holed up in a deserted town in Texas. Clint and Natasha were to drive into the town and discover what was happening and then leave. The Quinjet would then fly off into the sunset having saved the world yet again.

Loki was helping out with communications. He was monitoring the frequencies which the two agents would be using while out of visual contact. On one level, he was yet again impressed by the ability these mortals had to create solutions to their lack of seidr. In his eyes, it was inefficient next to seidr but it worked. He was listening to Natasha and Clint bicker as they worked out how they were going infiltrate the compound.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We should do 'Get Help", "Clint suggested.

"No. It's humiliating. "Natasha replied as the car slowly drove into the town, spluttering as it ran out of gas.  
Clint pointed to a large house near the end of the main street. It was the only building showing signs of life. Natasha carefully eased the car as close as she could before the gas finally ran out. She got out of the car and turned to Clint who was in some kind of distress. She rolled her eyes before helping him out and starting to support him as they walked towards the slightly open gate.

"Help. Is there any-one there? I need help with my husband, "She called pushing the gate open and entering what looked like a garden. Before their eyes could adjust to the darker area, Natasha saw a shadow behind her and they were hit with some kind of staff knocking them to the ground.

Both rolled and stood upright as a mocking voice spoke. It was one they had hoped to never hear again. "Well, look who came into my parlour. Agent Spider and Agent Fly, "The unmistakable accent of an Asgardian.

"Loki!" Natasha acknowledged.


	6. Chapter 6

"Well, look who came into my parlour. Agent Spider and Agent Fly, "The unmistakable accent of an Asgardian.

"Loki!" Natasha acknowledged.  
"Thor told us you, "Clint started before Natasha kicked him. 

Loki laughed, twirling the Chitauri staff in his hand," Ignore everything my brother tells you. I have been fooling him for over a thousand years. However, my new friends and I are very busy. So I won't be, "he paused thinking. "Villain monologuing for you this time. HYDRA are simply going to shoot you and dump your bodies. There is no information you can offer in exchange as we have plenty of our agents embedded in your puny SHIELD." 

Natasha felt a sting on her neck. She raised her hand and pulled out a dart. "Sorry about that, Agent Spider. None of my brave associates wished to get close enough to you personally .It is purely in deference to your prowess. That thought should keep you warm in your grave."

Natasha and Clint both collapsed due to the drug and were tied up not very gently to heavy chairs. The chairs were placed several meters away from where Loki was pacing. One of the HYDRA soldiers removed Natasha's ear-piece. "Sir, we've been compromised." 

"There's one here too, "a second was removed from Clint's ear.

Loki took the ear-pieces. "Farewell, Director Fury. I believe one of your poets said, 'parting is such sweet sorrow.' I disagree.". He crushed them , casting the pieces on the ground in front of the two agents. "Shot them and then leave. We've been here too long."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
"Well, look who came into my parlour. Agent Spider and Agent Fly, "The unmistakable accent of an Asgardian.

"Loki!" Natasha acknowledged.  
The whole Quinjet erupted in panic. Coulson and the other lead, Agent Carmichael , spent several minutes trying to calm the other agents down. The only other two not freaking out were Loki and the agent he was helping on communications. 

A green mist on Coulson's desk solidified in to the words "That's not me."  
Coulson wrote back, "I know. Do you know who it is? Very Harry Potter, Stark showed you this?"  
"No. Yes" Loki replied.

"Keep Loki talking, Agent Romanov, "Agent Monroe said as Loki was trying to isolate the signals and run them through voice recognition software. After the hubbub finally died down, Monroe said, "That's not Loki , sir. We don't have much from this guy yet but it doesn't correlate with the vocal samples we have from Loki. I haven't got a match for any-one yet. Could be a new player."

Another swirl of mist in front of Coulson, Loki stood there. " I can get Natasha and Clint out if you want me to."  
"How? We haven't much time?"Coulson asked in desperation. "This won't blow your cover will it?"

"Seidr." At Coulson's sceptical look, he listed, "Semi-autonomous clones, invisibility, inaudibility, teleportation. I can go in, replace them with clones and transport them somewhere safe. As for my cover, I don't think the All-Father would be proud of me abandoning my Shield-brothers at the first sign of conflict."

"Do it, good luck. Oh and, "Coulson whispered something.'" A code so they'll know I sent you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"For some-one who's not given to monologuing, you just don't shut up, do you Loki?"Natasha taunted. 

The faux-Loki stops in mid-rant, "Where are the guards? Lets finish this I have a more important mission than this."

Three armed men appear and take up positions. They fire several times . The two agents slump in their seats, blood blooming from wounds on their torsos. Their gasping breaths grew more and more shallow and rapid before with a sigh they finally stop. Loki leads his HYDRA agents from the scene.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Natasha had not yet given up hope of rescue. Clint was looking sick. The guard behind them was laughing with a new-comer who was his relief guard. "I was worrying I'd be left behind" he laughed . " I really want to get back to Latveria . There's this girl..."

The new guard lent over them, "Budapest, an alley, a dagger, 21.00.29. You were late."

Clint groaned, "Coulson will never let me forget that. Who are you and how are you going to help us?"

The guard said, "Just relax. " and removed all the ropes holding them. The two agents see the marksmen in front of them and hear the order but the bullets don't affect them. Faux-Loki smiles and turns away, leading his men towards an exit. But he halted and turned back. Something was wrong.

"I'm going to move you first Natasha. Then I'll return for Clint. I'm moving you to an inside room where we can wait for the sedative to wear off and then call in the Quinjet," Loki said. 

"Take Clint first then return for me. I've almost recovered. I can probably fight better than Clint at the moment. " Natasha suggested with the force of an order. 

She watched as a non-descript man half-carried, half-dragged Clint into one of the buildings. She carefully worked her arms and legs to stop the tingling, to make them ready for fight or flight. A shadow fell across her and she looked up at the false Loki. "So little spider, you think to escape me. Your paramour is dead. ".He stopped, frowning as he looked at her. " You are not injured...but I saw you being shot. You died. "He swiftly grabbed at the body of Clint but his hand met no resistance and the illusion vanished under two pairs of watchful eyes. "What's this?"He hissed forcing the tip of the sceptre under Natasha's chin and tipping her head up to fully face him.

"I'm not sure "she lied. All the dots were joining themselves in her mind. She wasn't sure if she liked her conclusions or not. Still if it got her and Clint out safely and it seemed Coulson approved, she could live with it.

The fake Loki pushed the tip of the staff into her throat. It wasn't sharp like she thought. How could this have stabbed Coulson cleanly. "I am Loki of Asgard and I'm "  
"Loki of Jotunheim, "the new-comer said.


	7. Chapter 7

Loki pushed the tip of the staff into her throat. It wasn't sharp like she thought. How could this have stabbed Coulson cleanly. "I am Loki of Asgard and I'm "  
"Loki of Jotunheim, "the new-comer said from behind him.  
The fake Loki spun and brought round the spear to attack the person behind him. The spear dropped as he was confronted by a ten foot tall blue-skinned , red-eyed, horned figure. The ice-giant lifted Loki by his throat and raised him to eye-level. The dangling god tried to escape. He was kicking out at the giant when the Quinjet arrived. His attempts to escape grew more frantic as the fingers tightened around his neck leaving Loki gasping for breath. Snow floated gently down round the tableau. 

Coulson shouted, "Stand down, Loki of Jotunheim. The Asgardian is our prisoner."

Clint limped out of the nearby building he'd been left in pushing a HYDRA soldier in front of him at gun-point. He stared at the tableau in front of him for a split-second, "Holy shit!" before firing at the ice-giant. The Jotun dropped the faux-god with a snarl. Blue blood oozed from the bullet hole in his shoulder. SHEILD agents rushed in to grab the discarded pseudo-alien and detain him, marching him to the jet.

Clint had dropped his gun and was walking towards Loki with his hands held in view. "Get every-one away Coulson." He ordered. He waited until all the agents had left leaving just him , Coulson and Natasha. "Ok Boss. it's me . It's Clint. Now...calm down. This isn't you. This is a Chitauri illusion. You're better than this. Loki, you are Loki of Asgard. It's safe now. No-one is going to hurt you."

"Clint, what are you doing?" Natasha asked, quietly but concerned. Clint continued with his soothing remarks. The ice-giant looked at him for a few more minutes scarcely relaxing before vanishing in a cloud of snow and rapidly melting ice. Natasha picked up the sceptre and examined it."It's a fake. No wonder it wasn't sharp. I'm guessing the stone is just a copy too. Why would HYDRA have both a fake staff and a fake Loki?"

Clint was now staring at Coulson, "We need to talk. And I think it has to be at the Avengers Tower. With Tony present, don't you Phil? Or is there some-one else we should invite? Apart from Nick, I mean."

Natasha remained silent watching the two men. She was calculating her responses when the most obvious explanation re-immerged. "No..You can't mean to tell me Neville is Loki? I mean I know he isn't a normal person. And he's not a known mutant. I checked with the professor."

"It makes a lot of sense, Nat. If it is Loki, then working for SHEILD means he's here with permission. I'm guessing the king of Asgard knows. And Nick. I don't think he's told the WSC, though. I don't think they want him walking free round the earth." Clint argued.

"But why use his own name?, "Natasha asked. "Why let us know who he is? Why confess? I don't understand. "

"We'll find out when we de-brief him and Tony, later," Coulson declared. "Then they can stop pretending to be in love."

"They aren't pretending to have sex, "Clint said. "Trust me. I've heard them."

Coulson looked disapproving, "That wasn't part of the deal."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
In the end , it wasn't for a few days that SHIELD had the time to talk to Tony and Loki at the tower. Making sure the HYDRA agents were possessed correctly had been a time consuming job.   
The attached scientists had subjected the staff to sufficient tests and correlated the resulting data to prove the sceptre was nothing more powerful than a Dollar Shop toy. Pretty but with enough pressure, it yielded it's true nature. No magic, no why to affect people. Nothing. Just a shiny pointy stick.

Never mind the fake but still posturing Loki who was still doing his best to obstruct the tiring SHIELD agents. Finally Fury produced copies of the shackles and muzzle that had subdued the real Asgardian prince. Once used on the fake, he was not only rendered silent but unable to move much due to the weight.

No amount of searching the files of all intelligence agencies could solve who he was. Clint's over-heard remark about Latveria had several sleeper agents activated and sent to Doom's palace to scout out if he was actively aiding HYDRA. If he wasn't, then they were to make overtures about helping the Latverian Overlord remove the infestation.

If he was, then SHIELD would have a bigger problem on their hands. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Natasha and Clint piloted the Quinjet back to the tower. Coulson and Fury were sat in the rear. "Do you want to talk about it? "she asked the subdued archer. 

"Not really. We'll go over it at the tower. I know Fury is desperate to understand why I did what I did. But you didn't see him, back then. it was pitiful. I was the only one he let get close. I tended his injuries. I wanted to help him. It wasn't ...forced. Most of the time, I had a lot of not free will exactly. Some of us were left mainly to our own devices so we could plan or build what was needed. " He shook his head to clear it. "I still need to talk to him, to Loki. Oh..I'm past wanting to hurt him. I know that's futile if he's anything like Thor. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fury strode into Tony's penthouse like he owned it. Had Tony been present, he'd be pissed but fortunately he was secluded in his lab. JARVIS was tempted not to inform Tony that the SHIELD director had arrived but since Natasha had ordered the AI to contact him, it had had to obey.

"Sir, Director Fury, Agents Coulson, Romanov and Barton are waiting for you in the penthouse." 

"It's not Thursday is it?" Tony asked putting aside the repulsor he was working on.

"As a matter of fact, it is sir. It is also the second Thursday of the month, "JARVIS responded."And before you ask, it is between eight and five."

"Guess I'd better get it over with. How would you describe the general mood?"

"I believe you should see for yourself , sir, "JARVIS replied.

"Oh, that bad", Tony quipped leaving the safety of his workshop.


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you compromised, Stark?" Coulson asked as Tony walked in.

"I think a better question would be , how aren't you compromised Stark?"Natasha said."Clint says you and Loki..Neville is Loki isn't he? are having sex."

"Loud, vigorous sex, "Clint murmured. "Hours of it"

"Jealous, Tweetie?" Tony mocked automatically while he ran various scenarios through his mind. He didn't think Fury would renege on his deal with Odin. But he may want to re-negotiate it. Odin didn't want to return too often as it may arouse suspicion , Thor was out of the question since they were hiding Loki from him. Who else? Heimdall, possibly .  
Fandral? No, no-one could stand the foppish creature .Not that Tony had actually met him. He still felt intermittently jealous of the guy. His hand-on approach to the female agents had meant he was constantly escorted anywhere he needed to go by Steve or Bruce if he was around.   
That left Loki. Unless Odin wanted to rely on some-one else, Tony scoured his memory for those people Loki had once told him about. Surely no-one else had the depth of experience that the Frost Giant turned Asgardian Prince had.

"Well, that much we had expected. Stark is capable of having no strings attached sex, "Fury said." We are more concerned about you becoming emotionally compromised. Loki may be playing on Tony's sympathies as we only have Loki's word about his injuries."

Tony glared at Fury. He knew what he had seen on the god's body and what Loki had described. That hadn't evoked his sympathy. Loki had with his stories and wit.  
"Sir, Mr. Loki had given me permission to show Director Fury all the medical files associated with his arrival here. "JARVIS said. "In addition, Mr Loki also recorded a statement regarding what happened leading up to his abortive invasion of Earth. I also have a record of the discussion you had on the deck on the week-end ago. Mr Loki has cleared these for viewing by Director Fury and those he deems suitable, though he requested that Thor does not find out about them."

Fury said, "Let's watch them then. Is Steve around? it seems a shame for him to miss these."

"He's seen them. Or at least he's seen the first hand evidence of Loki's wounds, "Tony responded. " He's talking to the HYDRA stooges . One of them mentioned a name he thought he recognised."

JARVIS started the first video. Tony was treating Loki's wounds in the med bay. Natasha and Clint assessed the wound left by the Dark Elf blade. Loki showing a simulacrum of the blade. The second video, Loki was showing various scars and burns . He was talking about how they were inflicted on him, his tone detached like a scholar talking about an un-interesting area of study. 

"Stop, just stop it, "Clint cried out. "I've seen some of those wounds and I cleaned them and stitched them up. They are real. It's not a play for sympathy. I didn't say this at the time, I should have when I was debriefed but it seemed too personal. "He paused, marshalling his words."He'd have absences, like a seizure and when he returned sometimes he'd have a manic energy, ideas tumbling from him. Other times he was injured and I'd have to aide him as I was the only one he totally trusted. He called me his Shield-Brother. And more than once he was a Jotun, an Ice Giant. That's how I knew to talk him down on Tuesday. That's how much he trusted me."

"You have heart." Fury quoted Loki.

Clint looked down at the table, "Yes. It would have been easier if he was cruel or violent. He was arrogant and a bit reserved. He made sure we had everything we needed. He had plans of retreat. If we couldn't rescue him from the Helicarrier, where he'd meet us. Where we'd go once the Chitauri arrived. What would happen if they won." he stopped suddenly.

"There was no escape plan for Loki was there, Clint?"Coulson asked.  
Clint shook his head, "It was all or nothing. Looking back I think he was expecting to be killed during the fighting. If not by us, then by them."

"Do you know why Loki would expect his allies to betray him, Stark?" Fury demanded.

Loki's recorded voice sounded again, "I played a trick on Thor, at his coronation. I allowed Frost Giants into the vault to try and take the Casket of Ancient Winters. As you know Anthony, I am not Thor's biological brother. He is a member of the Aesir, an As. I am or rather I was born a Jotun. I was brought up as the second prince of Asgard." Loki continued the story he had confided in Tony earlier. 

Phil was taking notes and kept stopping and starting the tape to make sure his notes were complete. "He shouldn't have been standing after some of those wounds. Still, he got up following a Hulk-smash so he's probably pretty invulnerable."

"It still doesn't explain why Loki expected this Thanos to renege on his deal, "Fury shouted.

Tony shrugged. "Loki doesn't like to talk about it. So I've never pressed him. Suffice to say, this Thanos guy scares him really badly. Even Heimdall doesn't like to talk about him. He's watching for him on Odin's orders but he doesn't want to talk about what Thanos is."

"So this ..what is he a god? a god-killer?" Fury spluttered.

"He courts Lady Death, " Loki said from behind him..

"And what exactly does that mean?" Coulson asked."Courts death?"


	9. Chapter 9

"So this ..what is he a god? A god-killer?" Fury spluttered.

"He courts Lady Death, " Loki said from behind him..

"And what exactly does that mean?" Coulson asked."Courts death?"

"Isn't the goddess of death your daughter, Loki?" Natasha asked.

"In your mythology, yes. In reality , no. Hela is indeed my daughter but she is not the Lady Death. She is still a child in terms of her age and so has a regent to rule for her in Helheim . And yes, "Loki looked slightly annoyed. "Sleipnir is an eight legged horse. He is my son. I am his mother. It was", Loki paused , marshalling his thoughts."I was trying to protect Asgard. I made a mistake. Not one I regret but I was young and arrogant. I thought I could , well it doesn't matter. Asgard was saved. Sleipnir was born and both Thor and I helped train him as a war-horse before the All-Father took him for his own. Sleipnir takes after his father in desiring war."

Coulson asked, "Let's get back to this Thanos, please. You can talk about that on your own time. Stark, can we have your attention as well?"

Tony jumped, suddenly aware he had been staring at Loki intently for the past few minutes barely paying attention to what was going on around him. Loki looked self-consciously at Tony. "Is there a problem, Anthony?"

"I was just checking you were unharmed, "he muttered.

"I was quite safe, in the Quinjet. It was Agents Romanov and Barton who were drugged and shot, " Loki replied. "In fact"

'You went blue and big and horned ",Tony screamed."How am I supposed to react? You never said anything about that. Is that the whole Ice Giant crap you keep repressing?"

"Stark, have you been hacking our security cameras again?" Fury asked as Loki had blanched, appearing paler than Tony had thought possible.

"Of course I have. No-one tells me anything that I need to know. You put Loki in danger.."Tony trailed off.

"I don't need protecting, "Loki hissed.

"Apparently, you do .'"Tony replied ."Otherwise you wouldn't have gone blue . You kept telling me how you feel about that. About being a Jotun. "

"It was a disguise." Loki retorted.

"It's not much of a disguise if some-one recognises you and you use your real name "Tony disagreed.

"I panicked, I couldn't remember a common Jotun name, just those of the royal family and their close advisors. I refused to use those. I didn't know who was behind that fake. If they are of Asgard or one of the higher realms, then they would know how much hatred I have of Jotuns. " Loki argued. "Simply being confronted with one should have left "Me" worried but fighting back not dropping my weapon in fright. That imposter obviously knew next to nothing about me. I'm not allowed to get close to him to discover who or what he or she is. "

Phil looked up, "I'll try to get you close tomorrow, if that's acceptable. We really want to know as much about him as possible too."

Loki nodded, "Thank you. Is there any limits to what I may do or not?"

Phil looked concerned, "We'll talk about that tomorrow. I don't know everything you are personally capable of. I'd rather not have a possible valuable resource damaged because you are too powerful when interrogating a presumed human."

Natasha said, "Nick wasn't too concerned about that when he asked Thor what he was prepared to do to Loki to get him to talk."

Fury glared at her, "We believed Thor could have obtained pertinent information which could have saved us valuable time in order to stop the Chitauri invasion. Your intelligence report was valuable but left a lot of gaps which our enemy was able to exploit ."

Loki flinched, barely able to accept what Fury had asked Thor, his brother to do. The logical part, his inner strategist, the warlord prince accepted the fact that getting results was required by any means necessary but that Thor had been asked to what...torture him? A thousand years of being brothers, friends, the one person Thor claimed to value. The one he had wanted to spend the rest of their lives fighting beside. Thor hadn't but Loki didn't know why. Part of him burned to understand if Thor thought himself capable of such deeds while another part was grateful Thor had either refused or not had the time.

Tony touched his wrist and the movement broke the spell. Loki smiled at him, unaware at how open his affection was to the rest of the agents who were trained to read even the faintest hint of weakness in some-one else's body language. Tony was totally oblivious to it however.

"Let's get back to Thanos, shall we, "Coulson sighed. It was going to be a tiring morning he could tell. Stark could be flirty at the best of times and it seemed Loki brought out that side in him. Loki, as far as Phil had experienced silently watching the inter-actions of the five other people in the room. was the consummate professional. Polite, intelligent, hundreds of years of both diplomatic and fighting experience and something Phil suspected a pragmatic yet ruthless streak which would make him an ideal field agent. Phil had no scruples about having Loki on his team without his seidr but the addition of that made Loki a very valuable asset. Like Fury, he didn't want to waste him. Unlike Fury, Phil thought political assassinations were a waste of Loki's skills.

Loki remained standing. He bowed to Natasha, "Agent Romanov, I wish to apologise for my language. Queen Frigga, my mother, was mortified at the words I used. For myself I have no excuse save I was trying to hurt you with my words. "

Natasha looked at him for a few minutes before smiling, "I won in the end though. I still need to find out how long it takes for me take you down, one on one. No magic, no you pulling your punches. I just want to see if I'm able to best a god."

Loki then turned to Clint, "Agent Barton, apart from Dr Selvig, I have wronged you most of all. I do not know how I can repay your suffering but I shall remain in your debt until you inform me of the penance I have to perform in order to gain your forgiveness."

Clint had spent his time watching the inter-actions of the five other people in the room. He looked at Loki for what seemed like a life-time to Tony, " I got Strange to look over my farm since it had disappeared from even SHIELD's satellites. As far as he and Wong can tell, it doesn't exist on Earth and yet it does. If either I or Laura are there, they can see the farm. Otherwise nothing. Even to Strange. Is this your doing? "

Loki nodded, "Yes. I cast a multi-dimensional shield around your home. Attuned only to you and your wife. It was to be the Avengers last refuge should the Chitauri win. I wanted you to have a safe haven to re-group. I can remove the spell if you wish."

"Nah, it's good. Plus I like having one over on Strange. "Clint started but Tony butted in. "Stephen Strange? The neurosurgeon? I thought he dropped off the map somewhere after that traffic accident. Retired or became bankrupt, I'd heard."  
"That's him, "Clint responded. "Calls himself The Sorcerer Supreme these days. Did some eastern hocus-pocus finding himself trip. There's some kind of 'Disturbance in the Force' and now Dr Strange, if you please, is some kind of wizard."

Loki looked concerned, "I must inform the All-Father about this. I had already noted signs that a higher form of magic was being used on Midgard. "

"Thanos, please people!" Coulson raised his voice. "You can socialise on your own time." 

There was a faint flicker in the air and Odin and Heimdall walked into the room. Tony hid a smile as Loki automatically stood to attention, "All-father".


	10. Chapter 10

Odin looked over the people sat at the table. He smiled at Loki. "You are looking well, my son. Midgard appears to suit you. Please introduce me to your other companions. I already know Director Fury and Anthony Stark. "

Loki stiffened, "All-Father, may I introduce Agent Phil Coulson who is the leader of Director Fury's council . Agent Natasha Romanov and Agent Clint Barton who are shield-brothers of Crown Prince Thor."

"I think we are your shield brothers now as well, Loki, "Natasha said. " You saved our lives. You risked exposure of your real identity because of us. More importantly , you faced your fears in order to protect us. I think that makes us more than shield brothers. That makes us friends, don't you agree Clint?"

"Not at the moment, Nat. There's still too much bad blood between us. I can't forgive him for what he did to me. What he made me do. Protecting Laura doesn't totally make up for that."He turned to Loki, "I can cope with just being shield-brothers for the moment. I don't like you and in fact I hate you because I actually liked Neville. As a matter of fact, how much of Neville's personality is yours?"

Loki shrugged, "All of it, I suppose. You didn't see me under the best of circumstances the first time we met. And I imagine that Thor would speak differently about me. My personality. My habits..And I imagine that I don't really know him that well either. I once thought I knew everything about him. I could predict how he'd react. Then .. I don't think I could have imagined Thor falling in love with a Midgardian after knowing her for only three days. Nor that he would sacrifice himself to save her. Now, I have no idea how he'd react. He was willing to commit treason by taking Jane off Asgard to protect both. He knew I'd do anything to avenge Frigga. So he committed a second act of treason in releasing a crown prisoner. His friends rushing to support him all the while."He sighed. "Even as I became regent by consent of the council, the same people were lining up to commit treason against the crown."

"Your mother took delight in punishing not only myself but Sif and the Warriors Three, "Heimdall spoke for the first time. "I had to clean the stables for a half year. I had forgotten how much of a bad temper Sleipnir has when he's upset. An eight-legged horse stamping on your feet makes for a lot of reflection. Not to mention the bites or the kicks when I tried to put his tack on him. "  
Odin took up the story, "Fandral and Volstagg were sent to the Isle of Solitude to get a grimoire your mother wanted you to have. "Odin handed Loki a large book.

Tony said, "Isle of Solitude? That doesn't sound too bad." 

Heimdall laughed, "It's a barren island inhabited by what you would call a silent order of hermits. An outsider wishing assistance has to wait until one of the monks acknowledges him or her. Once a request has been made it still may be several months before it is granted. Anyone who finds their way there must abide by the rules of the monks. They also have to bring enough food to add to the communal pot or else work on the land or fish to provide for the brothers. Both came back thinner and dirtier."

"Hogun was sent to Alfheim and the royal court. Flyting is not his strong point. But he did manage to return with this."Odin passed a smaller book to Loki who took it reverently.

"Thank you, "he breathed. He tucked the larger tome under his arm as he flicked through this book. He stopped with tears in his eyes. "The last time I spoke with her I denounced you both as my parents."

Odin just looked at him, sympathy in his eyes. Tony held his breath, he just hoped Loki wouldn't talk about what else had happened in the dungeon. The silence dragged on for several lifetimes or perhaps less than a minute before Clint spoke."So what happened to this Sith person?"

Odin laughed, " When Sif took her oath as a warrior, Frigga added another one to it. For every year she served as a warrior, Frigga had a day of her service as a hand-maid so she was like the other maidens of the court. Frigga had never asked for them before , so as her punishment Sif had to spend all of her 600 days with the other maidens of the court. Spinning , weaving, helping the women give birth and caring for their children. Helping in the kitchens and store-rooms. Forbidden the training grounds and the armour of a warrior, Frigga had hoped she would finally bond with Thrud. I'm not sure which of the three was happiest when Sif could return to her role as warrior."

Loki started to speak , "All Father... I told"

Odin looked at him and sighed, "Loki, my son..it doesn't matter. But we shall talk of that now, in private if it still disturbs you. Now, I have a small amount of time before I am missed and I still need to confer with Director Fury about what we have learned. " 

Tony had quickly tuned out of the meeting. He knew most of what was being said. Fury was updating Natasha and Clint when he realised he'd missed Heimdall leave. Loki and Odin were talking in a corner about something serious, he thought. He strained his ears but couldn't hear anything and fancied he could see a faint greenish shimmer around the pair.

Fury was wrapping up the debrief so Tony turned his attention back to the team. No, still boring so he returned to god-watching. In the few seconds he'd looked away, they had stopped talking and Odin was attempting to hug Loki. It was the awkward stiff armed embrace of two people who normally do not show affection with each other. Odin obviously wasn't used to trying to comfort his son but Loki was equally ill at ease. Tony hid a smile as the pair walked back to the table. It was uncomfortably like watching Howard and Tony interact when he was younger.

Tony was now only half-listening as Odin explained what Asgard was doing and how Heimdall was searching the universe. He told of how he was talking to the leaders of the other realms. He asked how Fury was doing in contacting other agencies on Midgard. 

He asked how Loki was fulfilling his wergild with regards to rebuilding or other forms of reparations. 

He even praised Loki for the success of his first mission. From Loki's reaction, his only one during Odin's oration, this was another unusual action.

Fury and Coulson gave some vague answers regarding their interactions but it appears Odin is pleased with the progress so far.

Regarding the wergild, Fury was at a loss.. To be brutally honest he admitted , no-one in the higher echelons of SHIELD had any idea how to integrate Loki and his non-Midgardian skills into the on-going re-construction of New York. 

In fact the whole Frost-Giant reveal on the latest mission had the internal SHIELD conspiracy theories going mad. Fortunately, those agents on the ground had thought they had heard Loki call himself 'Loptr'. The staff had almost crashed the servers trying to access Wikipedia . Tony was whispering to Loki that he'd had JARVIS purge a lot of information from the internet regarding Loki and had altered the sparse information about Loptr . 

"Would you like to share your remarks with every-one, Mr Stark?" Coulson asked."Or is it a special boyfriends only group chat?"

"Nah, we're good, thanks Agent." Tony snarked with his fake smile .

Odin stood up and took his leave as Fury glared at the genius and demi-god. Once he was certain Odin had left the building, Fury declared, "I want you to stop sleeping with Stark, Loki."

"Do you require my oath, Director?" Loki asked as Tony looked on dismayed.

"Yes, I do."

"Very well, "Loki sighed. "I, Loki of Asgard swear not to sleep with Tony Stark of Midgard until Nicholas Fury of Midgard, Director of SHIELD reverses his decision." 

Fury blinked at Loki's sudden declaration. Beside him, Coulson shook his head. Tony was dumfounded. He'd thought Loki would not have acquiesced without some kind of bargaining. 

He waited as the meeting finished. Loki was to return to HQ tomorrow to aide in the interrogation of the other Loki. According to Phil..err.. Agent , Loki would need some super-special clearance which Neville didn't have and would never have. Agent was going to call in Loptr, another of the All-Father's special liaison officers like Fandral. 

All this was agreed while Tony was silently fuming. He'd thought he and Loki had had some kind of connection but it seemed Loki was only too keen to stop any kind of intimacy with him. Tony was hurt beyond what he had thought possible. He had thought his own feelings were not engaged but the thought of losing Loki as a lover brought that crashing down.

He liked Loki. Not purely in a physical sense. Tony wasn't as blind to his own faults to realise that Loki had embedded himself in Tony's psyche. They were like inter-locking pieces. But it's not love...   
Commitment adverse Starks do not do love. Tony tried to comfort himself with that thought. He failed. 

Tony was deeply in love.


	11. Chapter 11

But it's not love...  
Commitment adverse Starks do not do love. Tony tried to comfort himself with that thought. He failed.  
Tony was deeply in love. 

But it didn't seem like Loki had any feelings for him. He had seemed almost too keen to agree to stop having sex with Tony, didn't he? Tony felt betrayed. He had a sudden in-sight into all those lives he had graced with a moment of fleeting pleasure. And more thankfulness for poor Pepper who was always cleaning up after him.

He watched sullenly as the SHIELD agents left, Phil wanting Loptr to present himself at HQ by 10.00 am the following day. Tony moved so he was stood across the table from where Loki was sitting, flicking through his new books. "So, you are now dancing to Director Fury's tune, Lokes?" Tony spat out , hurt fighting with anger in his voice.

"I'm sorry, Anthony, I don't understand, "Loki started confused, looking at Tony. 

"Oh..I'm back to being Anthony. Is that just your pet name for me? I mean, now I've put out for you. Was I just your Asgardian idea of a one night stand or was I really just a pity fuck? Are you going to just ignore me, ignore us because your other One-Eyed leader ordered you to?" Tony ranted for several minutes about SHIELD and just how much they cramped his style. " Because , you know ...swearing an oath." Tony stopped suddenly as he finally realised just how carefully Loki had crafted both the words and the meaning of his oath.

"Oh my god, you really are a full tilt fucking diva aren't you? No wonder Thor calls you a Word-Smith and the God of Lies. So, no..Loki isn't going to be sleeping with Tony, is he?" Loki looked bemused at Tony before shaking his head.  
"But Loki or Neville is certainly still wanting to have sex with Anthony..Am I correct?"Tony continued. "We just don't share a bed after because you opted to take Fury at his literal word," and laughed. "Well, if me and Loki can't sleep together, then you can be whoever you want to be when we sleep. I'm not sure if I want to slap you or kiss you." 

"I'd prefer it if you didn't slap me, "Loki said dryly. "You'd only hurt your hand and that could be a problem, later."

"Well, I'm heading back to the lab. I've wasted enough time today .Are you going to join me or are you returning to SHIELD? "Tony's mood had swung back to being happy. 

"Well, actually, Anthony. I was hoping to spend these free hours at my desk here. These tomes contain some information about Tha...him. Heimdall also informed me Fandral had delivered some more boxes and I would like to get started on those, if you don't mind."

"Sir, Ms Potts, Dr Foster and Ms Lewis are approaching the penthouse."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jane and Darcy thought they had finally tracked Phil down to the Avengers Tower. It was only by chance that they had called Pepper who knew where he was. But they had unknowingly arrived just a few minutes before the Quinjet had left. Pepper had raced them through the security protocols of both parts of the tower. They were still too late.

The three women headed to the penthouse office JARVIS had informed them Tony and Neville were still in following their meeting with Coulson. Tony may well be able to help Jane contact Phil. As they approached they could hear Tony shouting at some-one. The words were indistinct but then, Tony laughed. 

 

Pepper tried the door but it was locked. "Just a minute, Pep."JARVIS relayed the message. The door opened and Tony was walking towards the door, smiling. Neville was seated at the desk, flushed with his hair ruffled. Darcy sent a kissy-face Neville's way as he rolled his eyes in response.

"Tony, can you take care of Jane and Darcy? I have an urgent meeting that I need to attend. " Pepper bustled away before Tony had a chance to argue. Tony looked at the two women and asked, "What can I do for you, Dr Foster?"

"Jane, please. I've already asked you to call me Jane, Tony. I'm trying to contact Agent Coulson. I think he still has some of my data from when Thor first arrived and I really need it back. It looks like we just missed him leaving according to Pepper. Is there any way you can contact him and ask him to look for it? Please Tony. It's important." Jane begged

"Okay..I'll try. I can't promise anything though. . Come down to the lab. Does Stacy"(Darcy, Jane interrupted)" need to come too? No, Nev can you look after Daisy for a few minutes while I sort this out?"  
"Anthony, I was...Please Ms Lewis, I have work I need to do." Loki looked at Darcy.

"Cool, I can help. I'm practically a member of SHIELD cos of Jane and Erik."Darcy mentioned vaguely. "Hey, you think you could get me a Starkpad? One of the Thor-blinged ones? That would be sooo cool. And fill it full of my favourite songs."

"I shall endeavour to acquire one for you, Ms Lewis, " JARVIS said. 'I'm sure Sir would not be ashamed if you were to be the recipient of such a trivial gift."

"Cool. So Nev..Whatcha doing?" Darcy was using a sing-song voice which grated on Loki's nerves. She sat at the table, swinging her feet up and onto its surface, knocking the larger of Loki's new books."I mean behind Jane and Erik, I have the most firsthand knowledge about ET gods...Is that what you're working on? "

"Ms Lewis, I am dealing with what could be described as an Inter-Planetary threat. Not a bicycle riding plant collector." 

"Hey, Thor can't ride a bike. And he thinks poison ivy is pretty. He keeps trying to use it as a foliage plant when he picks flowers for Jane. It's kinda sweet really."Darcy chatted on about how Thor was now part of their lives. Little details Loki had to pretend not to be interested in. 

In his imagination, he could see Thor doing all those things, though. As earnest as when he was trying to please his parents with a skill which came easily to Loki. He could picture Thor trying to cook. Thor had always left the cooking to Loki and Hogan. 

Or use a washing machine. He remembered staring in horror at one when he'd first tried to clean his new clothes. Not to mention the look of incredulous despair on Tony's face as he'd helped to unload several of the now totally ruined suits from the belly of the beast. He'd muttered some kind of invocation under his breath, "Armani, Versace, Gucci."

 

"Do you have a brother, Nev?"Darcy's question dragged Loki's attention back to her. " I don't nor a sister. Jane's like a sister to me. Thor's brother sounds like a real jerk, you know. He sent a huge robot to kill Thor and then tried to take over the world. Did you see that on the TV? Me and Jane were in Norway and missed all the fun. And Thor's like, 'Boo-hoo, best brother ever. 'now he's dead. " She looked at Loki before asking, "What do you think?'

Loki grabbed his books and stood up, "There's a lot of things you don't understand, Ms Lewis. That is what I think. Now if you will excuse me, I have work to do. Important work. Not baby-sitting a child."

He brushed past Tony and Jane as they returned, Jane looking happier. Coulson did have her data.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony knocked on Neville's door. "You in there, sweetheart?" The door opened. Loki was stood at the window looking over the city, his back rigid. Tony entered, the door swinging shut in a haze of green behind him.

"Are you okay, Lokes?"Tony crossed and hugged Loki from behind. "Darcy doesn't understand. She just let her mouth run away from her."

"I know. I should be used to the distrust shown by those whom Thor declares his companions. Even the ones I have fought alongside, commanded and protected for all my life. Darcy is in truth no different to them. Even Clint rejected me once he knew who I really was. " Loki spoke quietly.

"Clint will come round. He doesn't like any of us very much apart from Natasha. If he spent more time in the tower, it would be different, I think." Tony tried to console him.

"Perhaps, "was all that Loki vouchsafed. But allowed himself to be dragged back to the desk to show Tony his disregarded books.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The door hadn't shut properly behind Tony and she could hear the conversation. It seemed like more people were compromised. Other Avengers. Maybe more than Tony and Clint.  
She really had no time to lose. She had arranged for her letters to be delivered by different couriers from across New York. She arranged to meet Phil in a small town diner well away from New York in a week's time. She just hoped it was enough. She just hoped Phil was safe. It was not just her life anymore.


	12. Chapter 12

It was Monday by the time Loki got to see his impersonator. He'd spent Friday creating an elaborate set of shackles for SHIELD's guest at Coulson's request. The prisoner could barely move with the ones he was currently wearing since he wasn't a god. The metal was heavily runed and embellished with a faint golden glow to suggest magic was running through them. 

The relief shown by the fake mage as the new lighter chains were fastened to his wrists and ankles was palpable. He was now able to move round the cell and care for himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy was driving the limo. He kept looking at the tall blue creature sat next to Tony in the rear. Loptr appeared uneasy. He's too tall for the seat and his horns are catching on the roof. The suit he's wearing doesn't look like it fits either.

"This is one of those times, "Happy thought "When Tony shows he has no more common sense than a squirrel." If Happy had been asked , he would have picked another car. Maybe even a convertible so the guy's poor head was comfortable. 

Tony and Loptr are whisked away when they arrive at the non-descript building. Happy was supposed to remain in the car until Tony returns but after a few minutes the security staff seem to have forgotten about him so he starts walking around before easing his way through the same door as Tony had left through.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony and Loki had joined Fury, Coulson and Hill in the observation room. Hill was looking at Loptr with a worried expression on her face. "Is this necessary , sir?"

Fury looked at Loptr as well, "Apparently both the All Father and the Jotun council want to know if this is the real Loki. Obviously, for Asgard, Loki is a prisoner on the run. But what is he for Jotunheim?"

Loptr rumbled with amusement, "If he is Loki Kinslayer , then I have to offer him the chance to challenge for the crown. Since Prince Loki killed his father, then he maybe the rightful king of Jotunheim."

"Are you kidding me?" Hill asked. "That jerk is a prince of two worlds?"

"Potential king of one, possibly both, "corrected the Jotun. "Should he survive the Ritual of Challenge."

The group watched the pseudo-prince. He was pacing round the re-furbished Hulk holding cell. From what the HYDRA agents had said, he thought he could do magic and they were low level enough to believe him. 

Natasha handed Loptr the fake sceptre. "An exact copy, in most respects, "he noted. "Where is the original? "The elegant fingers had found small indentations on the sides and was making the sceptre enlarge and collapse again. The stone glowing and fading as he twirled it. 

Fury glared at him, "We are not letting you close to it, Loptr. Now, what do you need to interrogate that?"

The Jotun's red eyes narrowed dangerously, "The All-Father , on Prince Thor's recommendation, allowed the Mind Stone to remain on Midgard. He claimed his allies of SHIELD would be able to protect it. Should you have lost it or it be stolen, then you have let loose more danger from beyond. The Chitauri are the vanguard of the Titan's armies. We are lucky you beat them back enough that he retreated for the present. When he returns , and he will return, you will need all the allies you can muster."

The silence following that remark was finally broken as Loptr asked Tony if his skin temperature would hurt humans. Tony had been itching to touch Loki's new form and used this permission to inspect the hand held out for him. Tony ran his fingers around the palm and then inter-linked both sets, "That's fine. Do you want to try and decrease your temperature until it hurts? I don't mind being the guinea-pig."

The group watched until Tony gasped, "That's it. That's starting to hurt." Natasha stepped up and offered her hand . "Yes, that's cold. Painfully cold. How cold can you actually get?"

"Cold enough to shatter Nidavellir forged armour," he answered. 

Tony rolled his eyes , "And how cold is that in terms I can understand?"

The Frost Giant shrugged, ice and snow flakes cascading off his body. "I know not. However I must do this now. I can't stay on Midgard much longer. This would be easier with the Mind Stone but I have some skills with mind magic but it maybe insufficient if it is Loki."

Fury nodded, "Hill take Loptr to our guest, please."

They looked at the screen as the door opened and the Frost Giant entered, Loki glanced at the incoming figures and crumpled to the floor in a dead faint. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy was not happy. He was trying to find Tony but was lost in the maze of passageways. No-one had name tags on which didn't help. And every-one is in black. Happy couldn't recognise who help him. 

Then in the distance he saw the blond head of Steve Rogers. "Captain, "he shouted pushing past agents who suddenly realised they had an intruder. Several tried to stop him but Steve had heard the confusion behind him and turned back. He gently parted the agents and grabbed Happy , hustling him away.

Happy dragged him down one of the side passages, '"I need to find Tony. It's important"

"He's busy with Director Fury. He won't be free to see you for some time. Even I don't know what they are doing, "Steve explained.

Happy thought for a second , "Look, I overheard some men talking about getting the Blue Guy. And releasing the prisoner. . " he paused, "Cap, they said they were HYDRA. That's why I need to talk to Tony."

Steve confidently steered Happy though a different set of passageways. Ones which gave the impression of being un-used. Happy was growing more worried. What if Steve wasn't only an Avenger? He dreaded to think what could happen if Captain America had changed sides. Steve opened a hidden door and they enter the room occupied by Tony and the SHIELD agents.

They were watching the Blue Guy talking to a man in fancy green and gold cos-play get up. There was no sound but Steve pointed out all the others were wearing ear-pieces. Blue Guy then placed his hand on the other man's forehead. The chained figure writhed and screamed. Happy was horrified and grabbed Tony, screaming "Stop him. He's hurting him."

Tony turned and saw his chauffeur cum bodyguard, who was now being covered by the three SHIELD agents . "Happy, what are you doing here? "

"How did you get in here?" demanded Fury. He listened to Happy explain how he had just walked in and around without any-one challenging him. Happy went on to explain the remarks he had overheard about Loptr and HYDRA.

Fury wasn't impressed by the failure in his agency. It was bad enough having gods materialise in his bedroom without civilians wondering unchallenged through one of SHIELD's bases regardless of how secret the contents it held. Some rooms had more valuable items in them than others depending on just how you viewed them. 

The door slammed open and hit the wall with a crash. Loki strode in, the blue fading from his skin as he returned to his familiar form. Dressed in his Asgardian armour, he advanced on Fury, his eyes blazing with anger. The gilded accents glittered and Tony felt his pants grow tight as he remembered the vivid dream he'd had just after the invasion, a dream of Loki with the horned helm. One of many extremely detailed dreams lately involving those horns. Did you know that you could...

"You lied to me. To Thor and to the All Father. You claimed to have the sceptre and the Mind Stone safe. But that...that...that child, a mere beardless boy. He reeks of contamination by the stone. Faugh..It's as bad as that weapon Coulson fired on your airship. What say you now about the sceptre?" Loki ranted. "His mind is no more than a nursling's. All he knows is a few sennights of time. His personality has been erased and replaced. A strange mish-mash of outlandish ideas. I mean, being tied to a rock by entrails of my own child.."

Clint turned up with three more chairs. Tony looked as the agents settled round the table. The spacing was deliberate. The position Loki was given meant he was unable to see more than two SHIELD agents at a time. Fury , Coulson and Hill being placed so that Loki could not inter-act with any two of them at the same time. Tony caught a flicker of amusement from the still angry Asgardian. 

Loki had taken the time to compose himself. He threw the sceptre onto the table with a clatter and moved until he stood behind Fury. He had spent several centuries dealing with these kinds of diplomatic annoyances. He knew he didn't need to sit where he would be at a disadvantage. He was the person directing this exchange of knowledge. He'd play it his way and eliminate the disadvantage.

With a flick of his hand, he produced a hologram similar to those Tony uses. Tony smirked and added that to his mental magic and how does that work file. Loki was very patiently explaining that HYDRA had his sceptre. Yes, he was sure.   
Yes, his doppelganger had been corrupted by it.   
Could his hypothesis be corroborated? Possibly, if Agent Barton was prepared to spend some time with the..Oh, he's not. The other agent? Oh, you're not going ask him either. Well, then, Dr Selvig? No..  
Could Loki reverse the programming , for want of a better word? No, not without the Mind Stone which is what your HYDRA has. Possibly Eir could but that would mean petitioning the All Father. 

Happy suddenly asks, "What are you going to do about the HYDRA ? It sounded like they were planning an attack soon. I mean I heard them, Tony. They are after the Blue Guy."

Alarms started to sound throughout SHIELD HQ.


	13. Chapter 13

Happy suddenly asks, "What are you going to do about the HYDRA ? It sounded like they were planning an attack soon. I mean I heard them, Tony. They are after the Blue Guy."

As alarms started to sound throughout SHIELD HQ, JARVIS contacted Tony to tell him that some-one was trying to break into his car. "Damn, my suit's in the car, "Tony stood up and started to leave.

"Was, Anthony, "Loki said, producing the case with a flourish."I wouldn't leave you unprotected."

Natasha was calmly producing weapons from somewhere inside her uniform. "Agent Romanov, weapons aren't allowed in this part of the building, "Fury admonished.

Natasha smiled and passed two guns over to Clint who was bewailing the lack of his bow, Loki looked at him, "Do you trust me Agent Barton?"  
"Why me?" Clint asked petulantly.  
"Well, I know you..your presence. And I believe you know where not only your bow is but where the armoury is as well. There are others here who need weapons and I do not yet have access to those areas."  
"Nat trusts you and she knows where the armoury is. Or you could take Stark."Clint responded."Hey, better still take Coulson."  
"We are wasting valuable time, Agent Barton, "Loki admonished. "Do you trust me or not?"  
Clint glared at him, "No. I know what you want to do and I hate it. However, you're right . Security has been breached so do what you have to do." Loki looked disappointed? No, Tony can't work out that fleeting expression and he was good at picking them up these days. 

Loki touched Clint's hand and they both disappeared. Hmm, just a touch, then why had Loki hugged him when they had teleported?..Is that the correct term? He'd have to ask.  
Tony had finished suiting up when Loki and Clint returned. Steve's shield was looped over Loki's arm and he was carrying a large bag of weapons. Clint was carrying his bow and quiver, shaking."Do not do that to me ever again. "Clint spat out venomously.  
Loki replied mildly, "We needed weapons and you know where the armoury is. I am not familiar enough with any-one else here to make the transfer to another location simple. I had already explained this."  
Coulson grabbed the bag of weapons and rummaged through it. He found three snub-nosed guns and loaded them with clips he had produced from a drawer. He passed two of them to Natasha and Clint saying, " Tracers, Stark made them several years ago. Use them on any hostile you think be HYDRA."  
Natasha looked at her new gun, "Does that Loki have a tracker?" gesturing at the pseudo-alien in the glass cage.

"His has already been activated, "Coulson answered.  
"Call it, Steve." Clint demanded.  
Steve looked at Director Fury, "Your orders, sir!"

Fury looked at his small band of not so merry men and woman." Rogers, Romanov, Barton. Spread out. Engage but don't kill. Use the tracer guns to mark possible hostiles, allow them to escape. Stark..."

"Phasers set to stun, captain." Tony responded, settling into his suit. Fury didn't even bother to glare at him.

"Stark, you and Loki have the corridor outside the detention cell. Let them past and take the prisoner. Loki, take a non-Neville agent form. I don't want a hint of blue. If any-one asks, Loptr has returned to Asgard and that's all you know. Questions?"

"What about me?" Happy asks. "I don't want to leave Tony out there alone. I mean, I'm his bodyguard, after all."

Fury looked at him, calculating, "Okay. Grab a gun. We'll put you in front of the cell. If some-one comes through who isn't any one of us here, drop your weapon and let them take the prisoner. We want HYDRA to think we are weak and unable to defend our guests. We still have no idea why they are hiding in Latveria or if they have another base . Nor why they went through all that effort to create a fake god."

 

Natasha selected a Glock from amongst them and passed it to Happy. "Can you use one of these? I know Tony has one at his range. "

'Yes, Ms Rushman. I have used one there." Happy replied, handling the gun in a less than professional manner. The agents hid a collective shudder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fury's plan worked, for some measure of worked. The base agents quickly surrendered allowing HYDRA to penetrate Fury's inner sanctum. It took less than an hour for the raid to complete its mission.  
Loki and Tony had been over-run. A low level EMP burst had Tony's suit (not) cascade to the floor. Tony had manually enabled the release mechanisms. A supposedly terrified Agent Loki had fled the scene but Tony could feel his presence close by. Natasha, Clint and Steve had dropped their weapons when the HYDRA agents had threatened Tony allowing them access to the detention cell.  
The gloating faux-god was taken from the holding cell. Happy had dropped his gun as soon as armed men had entered the room.  
Coulson was following the various tracer signals for several hours until one stopped and didn't move any more. "Loki, is it possible you can transport yourself to that signal and find out why the tracer has stopped?"he asked. 

Loki vouchsafed he could having seen images of where he needed to go and minutes later returned with the broken body of his doppelganger. Slowly but steadily the other tracers stopped moving. Loki was sent to get the first few but only dead bodies were recovered. Coulson called a halt to that mission. After 15 harrowing hours all the tracers had stopped, the last on the border of Latveria. 

The Helicarrier was given the All-Clear to retrieve the remaining bodies. Small teams were dispatched for the recovery missions. Preliminary autopsies revealed large amounts of poison in all but one of 23 recovered bodies. The bullet riddled body of the godling looked a pathetic sight. He looked so small, so fragile. And so very young. Tony tried to repress a shudder. He had seen Loki asleep and he had looked very similar to this poor corpse. 

The team were listening to the medical examiner's reports. The poisoned victims took around five minutes each. Then she started on Loki. Tony kept a careful eye on his god. Natasha was also watching , Tony realised but more covertly.  
Whatever Loki had felt before, in that moment of weakness Tony and possibly Tasha had evaluated and stored would not be repeated. The perfectly bland, polite prince of Asgard was on show. But Tony was aware of all those small subtle half imagined flickers of thoughts and emotions when Loki thought he was unobserved.  
JARVIS had files upon files and more files on Loki. Tony had been collecting data from the moment Odin had appeared. He was sure JARVIS could tell him how often Loki blinked and the average time of each breath. Yes, Loki was very disturbed by this corpse. And Tony burned to know why.


	14. Chapter 14

"..recollections .Loki?" Tony was startled out of his wool gathering by a kick to his ankle from Natasha. A polite "I beg your pardon" showed he wasn't the only one to have not been fully listening. The only reason Tony was certain that Loki hadn't kicked by the assassin was due to the fact his leg hadn't been shattered by the lady's foot going through his shin.  
"Remember when you were talking to that HYDRA fake, "Coulson started. "I want to know everything you asked and were told by him. Also what happened when you picked up the body."

Loki bristled, "I'm no necromancer. "

Coulson sighed, "Can we start again? Loki ,what happened when you confronted the fake? For some reason the cameras didn't fully record everything."

Loki recounted how he was sure that HYDRA had the Mind Stone. How his duplicate had talked about others who had been transformed by it. How many of them had died in the process. Those that hadn't. The twins, the man with the metal arm. 

When pressed about details regarding himself, the doppelganger had recited details that Hill had later informed Loki were part of several Eddas. Loki had looked disgusted at the details and fervently declared them to be false. But he would not explain which details in particular were either untrue or were later embellishments. It was private. Tony suspected which details he objected to.

"What will happen to the bodies?"Loki asked suddenly. "The HYDRA agents , I mean."

"Cremation and burial in SHIELD maintained private cemetery. Paupers graves in effect. We are not total barbarians, Loki." Coulson reproved. "Our agents are treated differently, of course. Those with families are returned to them. Otherwise we bury them with full honours."

"Would it be possible.."Loki's voice trailed off. He wasn't sure how these kinds of rituals worked. Midgard had so many different ways to honour their dead. Even if they were the enemy. Midgardians were strange, he thought.

Clint looked at Loki, directly for the first time, "I don't think so, Loki. Some of the agents buried there died during the Chitauri attack. They had no-one else to claim them. I know that you have a misplaced guilt about the HYDRA boy but Agent Evans paying his respects would look strange."

"I see, "Loki replied. "But , if I wasn't seen.."

"Invisibility is of course impossible. "Coulson informed him rather drily. "If that's all, this meeting is over. Loki, a word before you leave please."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you heading back to the tower, Tony? " Natasha asked.

"Happy brought the limo. Do you need a ride somewhere?" Tony queried. 

"Natalie Rushman is giving a self-defence course to some of your staff. "She grimaced. "Pepper's secretary Susan arranged it. One of the lab staff is being stalked and she wants to be able to protect herself. Pepper thought it would be useful to offer the training to any female staff member who wanted it. I think she's even wrangled Jane and Darcy into attending."

"Lo..Neville won't like that. For some reason, he hates Darcy." Tony noted. "He likes Jane though. "

"I do not hate Darcy. She is an insect, a mere irritant," Loki protested from behind them as they walked to the waiting car. "I do not see how Thor is attracted to Jane. His type is blonde, busty, brainless and loud. Very loud. Jane is intelligent and feisty. I can't imagine her sitting and knitting while waiting patiently for that oaf to re-appear from whatever quest has attracted his short attention span."

"More likely to be writing a thesis than knitting, "Tony agreed. "But Darcy said she's been watching chick-flicks and eating ice-cream a lot since Thor left again."  
"I'm hoping the training will keep her mind of Thor for a few hours. We think Jane's been trying to hack into our servers...She or whoever it was didn't get very far," Natasha said. "We always know when you've hacked into the system, Tony. You leave 10 seconds of AC/DC each time. The tech department have nearly reconstructed the whole of 'Highway To Hell'. "

Tony smirked, "I started using 'Back In Black' about two months ago, sorry Nat." She shrugged, not her problem.

Back at the tower, Nat headed to the employees gym. She had refused Loki's offer of help preferring to ask Happy to act as the male attacker.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jane, Darcy and Pepper joined the other three for supper. Darcy kept needling Neville making for an unpleasant meal despite Jane and Natasha attempting to smooth over any unpleasantness. Tony was privately delighted when the three women left. Jane was driving back to New Mexico the next day. Darcy was heading to Philadelphia to meet up with some of her college friends and Pepper was staying at the Stark House in the Hamptons for a few days.

Bruce was still in India while Clint was heading back to his farm and Steve was going to be holed up in his Brooklyn apartment. Natasha opted to leave as well to give Tony and Loki some privacy. Tony's plans for the week-end were shattered by a call from Phil. Loki had important SHIELD surveillance to do. Tony decided he needed to work on his suit. He'd been putting off the upgrades for several weeks and it was nagging at him. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
She parked her hire car and walked through the diner car park. There were several other cars, but none looked like SHIELD vehicles. A family of four walked past her to their car. The wife carrying a sleepy child while a young boy was proudly carrying the take-out boxes. 

She was having second thoughts. If she was wrong, she'd look stupid. But if she was right and Loki had compromised SHIELD itself, what would happen here? Would these innocent people going about their daily lives be caught in the after effects of her confrontation ?She wasn't going down quietly. She would fight to the death if she had to.  
She pushed the door and entered the diner. A typical Saturday morning small town diner crowd. Two men were arguing about last night's game at the bar, another family with teenaged kids were eating , a young couple gazing intently at each other. An older couple finishing each other's though with familiarity. 

She let out a breathe she hadn't realised she was holding. The waitress was looking at her. "Oh, I'm meeting some-one."

Outside, the cars faded from the car park leaving a single red corvette. The whole facade took on a long neglected look. A faded "For Sale or For Rent" sign swung in the breeze.


	15. Chapter 15

She got to the restaurant an hour earlier than Agent Coulson had agreed to meet her. "Table or booth," the disinterested non-descript waitress asked.   
"Oh, a booth. I'm meeting some-one," she said . "But he shouldn't be long."  
"This way. He's waiting for you" The waitress lead her through the diner. Phil was sat in a booth at the back. "Typical. I knew I should have gotten up earlier to be here before you, Phil."

"You shouldn't have gone to bed, "he agreed. "Now, why am I here and why the secrecy? I'm a busy man and you said it was important."

She looked at him, "I hate to do this." And punched him in the jaw. "Motherfucker, "she hissed. No-one had mentioned that it would hurt. She clasped her wrist to her chest and looked at Phil. Phil sat there still conscious but puzzled.

"May I ask, why did you want that to do? It did hurt a bit if you're wondering." Phil asked politely.

"Natasha called it cognitive recalibration. She didn't tell me it would hurt." She said. "It was supposed to knock you out or something. Now I've just got to hope you aren't mind-whammied because..."She stopped and looked around. There was no-one near. " Neville isn't who you think he is." Pepper whispered.

"Really, Ms. Potts and just who is he?" Phil queried. 

"He's Loki. You know, Thor's brother , metal aliens and stuff. Attacked New York a few years back. I heard him talking to Tony about it. So I know Tony knows." Pepper confessed.

"That's a serious accusation, Pepper. Do you have any proof?"

"I HEARD him, Phil. "Pepper repeated angrily. "JARVIS should have the tapes unless Loki got Tony to wipe them for some reason."

 

"I see. And what do you want me to do about it?" Phil asked politely.

"Do about it? Lock him up. Throw away the key. Send him back to Asgard .Whatever you did last time. I don't know. Why?" Pepper was puzzled and annoyed. This wasn't going the way she had though it would. "He's pretending to be Tony's boyfriend. That gives him an in to both the Avengers and SHIELD. And I know he's supposed to be a SHIELD agent. He could be planning anything." She eased her newly bought Taser out of her bag and aimed it at Phil under the table. She knew it was fully charged. One zap and she'd leave, Phil would be unable to stop her. She's be on the run but she'd be safe. Or at least, somewhere she could fight back.

"Please don't do that Ms Potts , "came the smooth voice behind her. Without a second thought she turned and pressed the trigger discharging the full force at the waitress. The figure wavered and the tall dark god stood in her place.

He glanced at Phil before sliding into the booth next to her. "My dear Ms Potts, my brother is the god of thunder. And you thought that would affect me?"

"Darcy told me it worked on Thor, "Pepper mumbled. "Twice."

"Yes, well. Thor has rarely been exposed to his own power as an attack. I, on the other hand ,spent many centuries being the main subject of Thor's growing competency with Mjolnir. "Loki said. "Besides, he was mortal when that happened. I am not."

Pepper looked at Loki, "Are you going to kill me? Here? Or somewhere else?". She looked round. Every-one else had vanished. The illusion shattered. An air of neglect surrounded them. A cobweb dangled over the table and Pepper thought she heard a mouse scuttle away from them. "That's why you said here, "She accused Phil. "No-one comes here so no-one will find me. You realise, Tony will look for me. And when he finds I'm dead, he will look for my murderer and he will find out who did it and why. When he does, he will hunt you down , boyfriend or not, god or not, he WILL kill you."

"Lady Virginia, had I wished you dead, I would have killed you long ago. Anthony would be none the wiser if your blood tainted my hands. Or had I wiped your mind. Re-programmed you, as it were."Loki commented."I have no wish to harm you. Indeed, my presence on Midgard is sanctioned by both the All Father and your WSC. "

Phil nodded, "That's correct Pepper. Everything is above board. Tony was asked by the All Father to take care of Loki while he recovered. SHIELD was asked to find Loki some suitable form of recompense as an alternative to prison. Thus Loki is now one of our agents. Neville has a desk job which keeps him out of HQ but , and I'm not sure if I should tell you this Pepper.." He turned to Loki who nodded. Phil started to explain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Tony was pleased that Loki's sudden departure with Phil had only been for a few hours. He had plans and he hated having his plans disrupted. However Loki seemed to not want to go out so they stayed in. Tony ordered from his favourite Italian restaurant and they settled down to watch some movies. Loki refused to watch the Alien series so they settled for the Terminator ones instead. Bantering as the movies progressed, Loki made a snide remark about the T-1000's nano-tech which had Tony scampering to his lab. Loki had followed and spent several hours watching his lover tinker with his armour. 

Eventually, Loki had tired and left for his room. Sunday morning saw Tony still engrossed in his new project so Loki had sure he ate breakfast before Loki decided to go and explore New York. He shifted into a less noticeable person than Neville whose face had, after all, graced magazine covers and newspapers a few months back. Loki wandered aimlessly through the city for most of the day.

He used the money he had earned as part of SHIELD. This was a new experience for him. On Asgard, all he'd have to do was ask for something and it was his. He'd always accepted it as being part of Asgard's royalty but now he realised how selfish both he and Thor had been in their youth. Their casual depravations of food stalls and taverns shamed him. Frigga had made sure they knew the value of everything and had insisted that they paid the required amount to the artisans and craftsmen who made their clothes and weapons. 

Tears picked at his eyes. Asgard, his Asgard was gone. And Loki himself was in part to blame for his loss. No matter what Tony said, he knew he was responsible for the death... no murder of his mother. For that alone, return to Asgard was impossible. He just couldn't walk the gilded halls with that knowledge tearing at his heart.

He stopped to check his reflection and became aware he was being watched. A man in one of those infernal hoodies had stopped and was watching him. Loki carefully released small tendrils of his Seidr . A green mist visible to none enveloped the man. An overwhelming sense of curiosity warred with the need to kill. But the urge to kill waned as the man stared longer at him. He picked up obscure words, Russian his mind suggested. Then the name "Steve" flashed into his mind. The man turned and rushed away leaving Loki stunned by the force of the word.

He slowly returned to the tower, his elation at being outside diminished by the encounter. JARVIS edited his drawing of the Hooded Man and sent it to Steve with Loki's impressions. Steve thought they were trying to prank him..It looked like Bucky but it couldn't be. Bucky was long dead.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Loki accessed the lab. Tony was deep in thought still and trying various permutations of his ideas and failing. Loki made sure he had something to eat. He sat and read in companionable silence for several hours. Loki murmured answers or laughed when Tony seemed to want some kind of response from him. But after several hours, Loki decided to go to bed. Tony off-handly said he'd be along later but JARVIS informed Loki that could be ten minutes or two days time. Loki smiled realising his own habits were mirrored in his mortal love. 

He woke the next morning in an empty bed. Tony had not followed him after all. Loki contemplated getting up but the comfortable warmth and the fact he had no real plans for the day encouraged his eyes to droop and sleep to reclaim him.

He was none too pleased when JARVIS woke him several hours later telling him that he was needed in the lab.


	16. Chapter 16

Loki padded into the lab. He was yawning , his hair sleep-mussed, pajama top semi-buttoned. "Look, he's adorable when he wakes up. Just like a cute little sleepy kitten, Rhodey." Tony said to the armour-clad War Machine next to him.

Loki yawned again and rubbed his eyes, "Good morning Colonel Rhodes. " He was suddenly aware of the sound of repulsors charging. "Is there some kind of problem? Am I missing something, Anthony? " and conjured a coffee. "It's far too early to be dealing with this."  
"I thought you hated coffee."Tony made grabby hands at the mug in Loki's hand. Loki sighed and another mug appeared. "If this is as good as the sex, I never, ever want you to leave." Tony declared gulping a large mouthful ."Oh..it is. I'm definitely tying you to the bed."

"Would you like a coffee, Colonel?"Loki asked with the last vestiges of his politeness, dropping gracelessly onto his favourite comfy chair.

"Where's Pepper?"Rhodey asked.

"Yeah..Where is Pepper?" Tony echoed. "Wait! Why do you want to know where she is? She should be in her office. It's 2.30."

Rhodey's weapons whirred again, pointing at Loki, "I got a letter from Pepper saying if she hadn't called me by 11.00 am then I had to open the envelope inside. It said that she was either dead or on the run and your Neville was Loki."

"Why would she do that? Lokes..wake up, "Tony prodded the slumped god.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Colonel Rhodes had started his day normally. He was surprised to get a courier delivered letter from Pepper. He tried her office phone, then her work cell phone, then her private cell phone. In desperation he tried her home phone and then her secretary's phone. Nothing. Rhodey read the letter and looked at the photos. He grabbed his armoured suit and headed for the tower. He had to save Tony.

On arrival at the tower, he'd asked JARVIS where every-one was. Tony in the lab, Neville in bed. No other Avenger or associate was currently present. Cautioning JARVIS to remain quite about his appearance, Rhodey headed for the lab, "I still have access, don't I J?"

With JARVIS's ringing endorsement of "Of course, colonel", Rhodey opened the lab door to see Tony at his bench, engrossed in a piece of leg armour . As usual, Tony was totally absorbed in his project. Rhodey was pleased to note that there was nothing unusual present.   
"Tony...Tony...Tony.." 

"In a minute, Platypus.." Tony mumbled after three or four minutes of being called. 

"Tony, we need to leave now." Rhodey tried again. "It's important."

"I'm soo close. An hour or two.." Tony protested."Go talk to Nev. Three at most. I'm nearly there."

"Tony, get your suit. We need to get out now, before Neville realises I'm here, "Rhodey tried again. "it's important. Very important."

"Look, your upgrades are coming along nicely. Once I work out this...Well, Platypus We'll both be Terminators."

Rhodey sighed, "Look Tony. Neville is a fake. Now ,I know you are in love with him. But believe me, it's best if we leave now and call Nick. Okay?"

"What do I want to talk to Mad Eye Moody about?" Tony was suddenly aware something was wrong."What's up? tell me."

Rhodey sighed, "Ok. Don't get mad. Just grab your armour and "

"Can we stop for a minute?" Tony complained. "Just a quick explanation please. I'm kinda busy here."

"Ok..Listen. I know Neville is Loki. Now I need to get you somewhere safe."

"Wait..wait. YOU know about Loki??"

Rhodey retracted his face-plate, "Yes. Now, I need to get you out of here and back to SHIELD"

Tony interrupted. "Who else knows? J, call Lokes down here. This is getting silly. "

"I'm afraid Mr Evans is asleep, "the AI intoned.

"Wake him up and get him down here, "chorused the genius and his long time friend.

"Jinx, sisters forevah.." Tony tried to high-five his friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took JARVIS several minutes to wake Loki. And threats of sexual depravation before Loki managed to stumble down to Tony's work area. Loki kept up a monologue of threats as he made his way to the inner sanctum.


	17. Chapter 17

Darcy opened the door to a courier, "Sign here, miss. And here, "got her two letters. One for Jane and one for Erik.

"Jane...a letter from New York. " she screeched . "From a Ms V Potts. Who's that? I don't know anyone with that name."

Jane gestured at the desk, "Just put it there, Darcy. I'll look at it later. "

"But who's it from? And why has Erik got one as well?" she pouted."I haven't got one nor has Ian."

Jane glanced at the letter, "It's from Pepper. It's about the grants Tony's going to give us."

Darcy smiled, "I never dreamt when I became your intern we'd be talking about The Tony Stark like he's a friend. Never mind, staying with him."

'Yeah. He's been good to us, "Jane replied. "And Neville's kind of cute as well." Darcy grimaced behind her back but said nothing.

Jane got on with her calculations and in the course of her day, stacked her work in a pile on top of the letters and forgot about them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sir, I have a letter for Dr Banner, " the earnest young intern at Helping Urban Located Kids.   
The director frowned, "I'm not sure where he is. He doesn't let us know much about his whereabouts. We generally only see Bruce if he needs supplies . " He sighed, "It's only because of him we now have two new revenue streams. Local Orphan Kinship Initiative and Investing in Rural Orphans Network have both given substantial donations in the past two months. "

" Simply to support Dr Banner?" the intern inquired.

"Oh, they are legit charities. I checked them out. One is part of the September Foundation, the other part of the Maria Stark Foundation, "The director looked at the envelope, " Let's stick it in the safe. Next time Bruce comes in, I'll give it to him. We'll ask every-one to keep an eye out for him but I'm not spending time chasing around Kolkata looking for one doctor regardless of whom he's getting funding from."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rhodey had finally calmed down.

Tony had finally contacted Pepper.

Loki had finally woken up.

James was worried about how Pepper was.

Tony was worried about who else Pepper had told.

Loki was worried about how buzzed he was from all the coffee he had drunk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Natasha and Pepper arrived with one of Steve's new friends, Sam Wilson. It had been decided to play off Pepper's revelation as a joke. Played on Pepper by Tony and Neville aided and abetted by Steve to add an aura of authenticity. Pepper apologised to Sam as did Tony and Loki. Tony wanted to look at Sam's wings.   
So he politely asked, then begged, pleaded, and even wheedled before Sam took pity on him. Tony took one quick look at it before sprinting down to his workshop. Some thirty minutes later, Neville was requested to bring Sam down and the trio spent several hours upgrading the Falcon suit.

Tony had more ideas but Sam insisted he had to go. Unlike Tony, he had a job. Tony quickly took lots of measurements, mainly for the look of the thing. He was sure Loki could recreate a facsimile of Sam anytime he wanted to. Sam left with Natasha and Rhodey. The two men had a lot to talk about. And Natasha was interested in Sam.

Pepper admitted to writing several more letters. Steve, Natasha and Clint, Nick and Maria apart from Rhodey and Sam. She had phoned Phil to arrange their meeting. There was to be a second wave of letters to be sent out later by Susan which Pepper had now intercepted.   
"Senator Stern, General Ross, "Tony looked at Pepper, shuffling the letters in his hands. "Oh, Pepper! Hammer. Please, not Justin Hammer. Didn't you trust me at all?"

"I'm sorry Tony, " she whispered. "I just wanted to help. I didn't know who to trust. "

"No, I'm sorry Pepper. And so's Loki. Aren't you, dear?" Tony apologised. "We should have told you when Lokes joined SHIELD."

Pepper looked at Tony with tears in her eyes, "You are sleeping together aren't you? There isn't another chance for us??"

"My dear Lady Virginia, "Loki said. " My interests in Tony were purely carnal. Besides, I am bound by an oath of the highest order not to sleep with Tony."

"Bull, "she screamed. "I don't believe a word of that. I've seen you interact. Oh, I believe Nick would have made you promise and I'm convinced you would agree. But I don't think for one minute, you meant it. Tony would have added several clauses so I'm sure you would too. Tony, indeed. You've never called him Tony in my presence before."

Tony hugged her, "I'm sorry, Pep. Please. I didn't mean to hurt you."

She hugged him back, suddenly feeling old, "I know Tony. I'm just not sure if this is the saving of you or not." She walked over to Loki, "Don't hurt him. I may not be an Avenger but I'm patient and vindictive. You'll rue the day I found out ."

Loki backed away, obviously worried about the anger of the approaching woman, "Lady Virginia, I believe you. You have the look in your eye that Lady Sif hath before battle. Tis a sight to scare even the most fool-hardy of warriors."

 

"Good, remember that, "she retorted, turning away and leaving the two men uncomfortable together for the first time since Loki had moved in.


	18. Chapter 18

The awkward silence grew. When Loki muttered something about it still being early, JARVIS informed him it was nearly 4pm. Loki then groused about making them something to eat since they had both missed lunch.

Tony was called an hour later to break his fast. Then several times in the next ten minutes culminating in the threat that Loki could and would teleport him from the lab to the dining room without Tony needing to be touched. He reluctantly laid down the elbow joint he was smoothing flush.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
"And does Tony do...?" Pepper's voice dropped and she whispered something..

Loki laughed, "Oh That! That is just so annoying. I mean, I've been with a horse but.." he broke off as Tony rounded the corner and came into view.  
Tony glared sourly at his two lovers, the current one and his former one. There is nothing worse than finding your partner talking to your ex about you behind your back. Loki straightened with his usual innate grace from where he was leaning against the stove, "Have you washed your hands, Anthony? Supper is just waiting for you."

'You invited Pepper to join us?" Tony queried, ignoring the query.

"Indeed, it seemed only fair to invite her after all the mental anguish I have caused her." Loki explained, setting plates out and grabbing a covered dish out of the stove. "Hands, Anthony." 

"You're not my mother, "Tony half-heartedly grumbled heading to the sink. When he turned, Pepper was smiling at him. "That's your 'I have paperwork for you to sign' smile."

"Well, you're not wrong there. I do have some forms for you to complete. But I also need to apologize to you. "

"Pep, I can count the number of times you've needed to apologise to me on the fingers of one hand. What's so special about today?"

"I should have talked to you rather than go behind your back, "Pepper confessed."But Tony, I was so scared. I didn't know what to think but I only thought the worst of you. Of both of you....And given it IS actually Loki, and you hadn't told me. I honestly thought you were brain-washed. I didn't know who else was aware that Loki is here, "her voice cracked "I even thought you might have altered JARVIS's programming to lie to me."

Tony hugged her, he really was getting better at comforting people, he thought. "Very touching, sir," JARVIS snarked from the ceiling.

While Loki was dishing out some kind of stew, Tony opened a bottle of wine and Pepper laid the table. Tony didn't recognise any of the vegetables and Pepper asked about the ingredients. Loki rather shamefacedly explained he had been to Asgard to speak with the All Father regarding ...well many things not important enough to regale Tony with nor to inform Fury about. 

"I wouldn't have expected you to bring back vegetables, Lokes. I was rather hoping for apples , "Tony said.

"Apples? Asgard isn't an orchard Anthony, "Loki laughed. "Norns know how I had to argue for even the smallest amounts of vegetables being served at a meal."

"I believe that Tony is talking about the Golden Apples of Norse legend. The ones which grant immortality, "Pepper said.

"I think that is the Greeks, Lady Pepper," Loki laughed.  
The trio ate the meal in friendly banter. Pepper praised Loki's cooking. Loki told tales of elaborate banquets he'd attended .Pepper reciprocated with stories of high class parties she and Tony had attended. Tony looked at the dirty dishes and plates realising it would be his job He mentally sighed and started to gather up the utensils moving over to the dishwasher when they all vanished to re-appear cleaned, ready to be put away.

"That's a neat trick, Loki" Pepper praised. But at the sudden and metaphorical drop in temperature, she said "Did I say something wrong?"

"The whole of Asgard would look down on my Seidr. Thor always called what I do, what I did ...tricks," the word was spat out like poison. "No matter how many times I saved their lives using my Seidr, wasted my Seidr to heal them, even my skill with words aiding the All Father in his negotiations..Tricks to Thor and his friends. Unless you came back from the fight or the hunt covered in blood and gore or from the tavern or feast with a wench or two hanging from your arms, then I was worthless to Asgard for the most part. Not that any would say it to my or Thor's face." 

"I'm sorry, Loki."Pepper apologised quietly."It's just your..Seidr? It's just so different from what we can do. It's ...oh I don't know."

"Fascinating, Pep. That's what it is. One of these days, I'm going to drag you to the lab and test everything you can do. There's got to be at least one Nobel prize lurking in your abilities." Tony answered with glee. "Come on, Bambi, science awaits!"

Tony bustled Loki towards the elevator while Pepper pushed a sheaf of paper into his hands, "Make sure Tony signs these."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Traitor!'Tony pouted."Pepper knew you wouldn't let me forget to sign them. And you brought them in here and defiled my sacred science space."Tony snatched the files and flung them on a nearby bench. "Now, science!"

U tried several times to pick up the files. It whistled sadly as the papers fluttered un-noticed to the floor. U retrieved it's fire extinguisher and douched the papers. 

Neither Tony nor Loki noticed. Tony was too busy alternatively urging Loki to "Do this, create that, teleport the other, can you levitate?" and messing around with various instruments. Calibrating, smashing, rebuilding. Loki was patiently humouring Tony. 

Until JARVIS mentioned it was nearly 3 am and Loki grabbed Tony and transferred them, naked into bed. Tony's sleepy mumbling about sex-magic and it's uses faded as his eye-lids drooped and his breathing slowed. Loki slid back into his now familiar Neville form and surrendered into the inevitability of sleep.


	19. Chapter 19

Tony and Loki woke up to a face full of foam as the covered paper being dropped onto their heads."You were supposed to get Tony to sign these, not mess around all night ." Pepper was restrained in her anger. 

"Pep.."Tony protested." We're asleep." He nudged the slumbering god beside him. "See!"

"Go way" was grunted as Loki burrowed deeper into the cocoon of blankets surrounding him.

"He's not a morning person, Pep" Tony explained to his CEO.

Pepper managed to wrangle Tony out of bed and into the kitchen of his floor. JARVIS re-printed copies of the paper-work Tony needed to sign. Tony grumbled until his first cup of coffee was placed in reach and then he reluctantly grabbed his pen and started on his least favourite job. The first few were simple, he just had to sign them off. A couple of R&D requests, a transfer to a more suitable location and a substantial raise for a gifted employee. Tony glowered at Pepper over his coffee cup, "Pentagon...that's a no!"

"I don't know how that one got in. Both Susan and I checked all the files before JARVIS reprinted and I gave them to you." Pepper protested. "It was inside the SHIELD folder, though." Their eyes met in shared annoyance. It must have been Natasha acting on Fury's orders. Though why he was dancing to the Pentagon's tune was another matter.

A dark-haired figure shambling through towards the kitchen broke the silence. A blob of foam balanced precariously on his head. "Loki looks so harmless like this, "Pepper noted.

Tony snorted softly, "Harmless? Loki? Watch this!" Tony picked up his pen and threw it at the back of the somnolent god who was waiting for the kettle to boil. In a flash, Loki had disintegrated the pen and whirled around dressed in his armour with daggers held ready to attack or defend. The dozy deity transformed into the warrior prince. A dagger was suspended a few feet short of Tony's face. 

Pepper gasped and recoiled a few steps. She had never seen Loki in his full glory during the Battle of New York, only the news reports. Loki smiled his feral smile and stalked forward, threateningly. The effect was spoiled by the foam sliding off his head and landing on his nose. Tony laughed and Loki grimaced at him, flicking the foam towards him. Tony attempted to bat it back but it landed in Pepper's cleavage instead. The trio watched the amorphous mass slide down the skin into the hollow between her breasts. She looked into a pair of matching innocent faces.

"Neither of you are attempting to clean up this mess," she snapped. And then giggled. She fished the foam out of her bra and threw it at Tony. Loki transformed it into golden bubbles which chimed rather loudly as they popped into nothingness. Pepper shook her head ruefully at them and left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Following breakfast, Tony returned to his lab while Loki with the merest hint of conscience opted to head for his office. He hadn't been working there in several weeks and he knew that there should be a further delivery from Asgard soon.

The lure of his books made Loki careless. Believing only he and Tony were in the penthouse, he spelled the area to be free from outside influences. Revelling in the freedom to study without any demands on his time or energy, he read and made notes. Transcriptions and translations filled the pages of his notebooks as he worked his way through the first of the Seidr locked boxes. One book triggered the memory of his mother. 

He remembered being in her private sitting room. The two of them studying together. A fire burned on the grate taking away the chill of the early evening air. Loki was showing Frigga how he had mastered some small spell .He must have been young but she was so proud of him. Tears pricked his eyes as yet again he remembered his betrayal of her, of Asgard's defences. A stray tear made a silvery track down his cheek.

The point of a sword under this chin lifted his face as the blade settled close to the jugular. "Of all of the emotions you've counterfeited, I've never seen grief from you before, Loki" Fandral said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Tony rushed to Loki's rooms. He thought he hadn't moved so fast, so often since he was gifted with an immortal lover. JARVIS's comment about Fandral leaving the Bifrost Arrival, Departure and Asgard Service Station and heading to the rooms where he normally left what items the All-Father had wished to be delivered. Was Fandral was several days early?, Tony wondered. Neither Tony nor JARVIS had been unable to alert Loki about Fandral's arrival since he had magic-ed the speakers to silence as was his wont when he didn't want to be disturbed.

Tony fussed with his latest gauntlet as he sped down the hallway. He was proud of this one. It had been repeatedly tested on Loki who had even been left with bruises from it. It was nearly twice as powerful as the first time he had gone up against the alien brothers. And he'd blasted Loki off his feet the first time round in Stuttgart. Hell, he'd even managed to blast Thor that time. 

Tony mentally reviewed everything he knew about Fandral. He appeared to be the closest to Loki of all of Thor's friends. Loki had mentioned them travelling together in their youth. Fandral wasn't trusted by Fury. Nor any of the senior SHIELD staff. He used to be too handsy by far towards the female staff. A close encounter with Nat had partially stopped that. Tony eased open the door and looked at the scene before him. Despite what Odin had said, he didn't trust the rest of the Asgardian nobles as far as he could throw them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
"Volstagg was thrown backwards and Thor was screaming at the enemy about something with his cloak alight. Meanwhile Sif and I had outflanked the largest creature one on each side and ham-strung it. As it fell, Thor managed to kill it with one mighty strike. The rest scattered. When we returned, "Fandral's voice dropped to a more quiet confiding tone from the jocular story-telling one. " Thor demanded to know why the All-Father had imprisoned you as he had had need of your fighting skills. Odin told every-one to ignore him as he was drunk. Enraged Thor roared that your lack of trial and subsequent imprisonment was a farce since that had caused your death." he paused to drink deeply from the goblet in his hand. "Odin reminded him that had he not stolen you from the dungeon, you would still be alive. Thor then flew off and Heimdall will not say where he has gone ."

"He told no-one ? Not even Sif?" Loki asked sipping his drink. He looked relaxed but Tony could see he wasn't. Yet another mask but this was an older and thus more comfortable one. The two Asgardians were seated side by side on an over-stuffed green couch which Tony didn't recognise, feet resting on a low table. Again, not Tony's. "Heimdall has oft been in the habit of gossiping with his sister."

"Not to my knowledge and the All-Father has refused to use the power of Hliðskjálf to find him. Many had openly criticised him for this but now I believe I understand Odin wishes your whereabouts to remain hidden as well."

Tony had tried to remain hidden but the two Asgardians and their freaky super-senses had noticed him. "Anthony, may I introduce Lord Fandral, one of the Warriors Three. Fandral, Anthony Stark, Lord of this tower." Loki was polite as usual. Another mask, Tony thought. 

After several minutes of conversation , both Fandral and Tony trying to weasel information out of the other, Fandral declared he had to leave otherwise there would be talk since he had been sent a few days earlier than normal. He presented a scroll to Tony with a flourish before bowing to Loki and leaving. Loki watched him with a strangely sad expression on his face.

"Will there be a problem with him knowing about you, Lokes?" Tony asked struggling with the scroll.

Loki shook his head, "Not Fandral. I suspect that is why of all of them , he was the one chosen as a liaison. The All-Father knew he would hold his tongue should he see me. He was my closest friend after Thor." He gulped from the goblet this time, frowning over the top. "Anthony, place your palm on the seal. That is the way to open a Royal Command."

"Sorry" this time the scroll unrolled showing runes on the inner surface and a second smaller scroll which dropped to the floor. Loki glared before summoning the smaller scroll to him and reading it. "What does it say?"

Loki perused it a bit longer, "Basically what Fandral said. Thor insulted Odin and they argued about me. And Thor left without a word. Heimdall will not say where he is. Nor will he tell Thor about me. Now, what does yours say?"

"I can't read it ..oh..I have to put my hand on it...Cool, "Tony paused."That's strange. Odin Borson, King of Asgard and the Nine Realms swears to feed ..my entrails and testicles to Garmr should I allow any harm to befall Loki Odinson . Oh and I shall be alive for a millennia while this happens."He looked incredulously at Loki, "Did I...Did I just get the Shovel Talk from your dad?"

Loki looked up at him, obviously still distracted, "I don't understand what you mean. If you will excuse me, I need to prepare your dwelling against Thor should he discover my presence."He sorted though a stack of books next to his desk, eventually removing two and tucking them under his arm. "If you are not in battle tomorrow, I wish to add some extra protective charms to your ring."

Loki walked into the bedroom and shut the door firmly against the now anxious genius. Tony tried the door but it wouldn't move. He leaned his back on it trying to sort out what had just happened in his mind. The mere thought of being without Loki , of having him ripped from his side just when he'd come to terms with his feelings was unbearable.

Loki leaned on the door to stop Tony from entering. He felt sick. Everything was going to be ripped from him again. Thor would drag him back to the promised cell. Odin wouldn't stop him . And the rest of Asgard would probably cheer him on. And worse, he'd lose his one bright spot. His beautiful, shining star. Anthony, his Tony. He had originally decided Tony would be a pleasant interlude , a memory to warm his cold cell should he be returned.  
But now, it was too late. That he had confused his desire for intimacy with lust was bad enough. But the slow-dawning realisation of love floored him. How could he have been so complacent? Falling in love with a mortal! He'd seen what Thor would have sacrificed for Jane. And knew he would make realms burn to protect Anthony. 

Sentiment. It would be the death of him, Loki mused.


	20. Chapter 20

Thor had stopped at Knowhere. The Aether was safe. But the argument over Loki still rankled. Thor had been missing a valuable warrior in battle. But more than that, Thor had been missing Loki. His brother. The only one he had thought understood him at all. His closest companion and champion. Loki had always been close. From his first toddling steps to just before he fell, Loki had been at Thor's side. His protector and at the same time the one he protected. 

Many times he had pondered Loki talking about living in his shade. Had he really been that oblivious to his brother's suffering? He remembered refusing to torture Loki on Fury's behalf. He wanted to apologise so badly. When the riot had started in the prison he hadn't been sure if he was going to find if Loki was the instigator, if he'd be a victim or worse were he to be a hostage and used against Odin if he had been recognised as an Asgardian prince. 

He wished his mother was there. She'd always been able to give him advice about matters of the heart. He had sought her guidance over Loki's fall and despite her own grief, Frigga had given unstintingly of her love and concern for both her sons. 

And Loki's second loss, so soon after her murder had left Thor reeling without any concrete base for his reactions. He had dutifully returned to Asgard at the All-Father's bidding after spending time with Jane under the guise of informing his Midgardian allies about the Dark Elves. Once back on Asgard, his duties had multiplied since he now had all of Loki's and some of Frigga's to perform. On top of that, he was leading Asgard's armies to combat the raise in border incursions caused by the breakage of the Bifrost. He wanted to blame Loki for that too but in his heart of hearts, Thor was honest enough to realise it was due to him fighting before thinking. He would have had time enough to remove The Casket of Ancient Winters before the Bifrost had had time to destroy much of Jotunheim. 

Thor swigged his ale as he surveyed the other patrons of the bar. An elderly man was surrounded by a crowd of nubile young women. A Midgardian Trash Panda was talking to a Flora colossus. Thor smiled to himself as the Groot pointed out the flaws in the raccoon's plan to capture some-one while the raccoon didn't understand the reasoning.

He smile slipped as he remembered Loki trying to explain why their(read Thor's) strategy was doomed to failure. And how he'd been castigated as a coward for not wanting to fight first when there were other equally viable schemes which would have worked as well as battle if not better.

 

Thor put down his half-emptied tankard. His thirst abated. His urge to get drunk now lost in his much needed introspection. He had the wild desire to drag Loki across Midgard to show him the wonders of the realm, its people. He longed to see his brother talk to Stark or Banner. Even Jane. He imagined Loki sitting where Stark's current consort sat, listening eagerly to the Science Bros talk. Contributing with his knowledge of the other realms. Loki would have been at his best amongst Midgard's brightest minds.

Thor shook his head to disperse his dream. Thor suddenly realised who he could go to for help. His niece, Hela. Loki's only daughter. She'd know something. Anything. Or maybe Sigyn. Thor was caught in indecision. He knew both women had little reason to trust him. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thor trudged through the misty swamps of Helheim. The last time he was here, Loki had lead him confidently to the heart of Hela's power. Now, the swirling fog tried to lead him astray. The echoes of the ignoble dead, those who died of illness or old age, battered his ears. The unsubstantial forms of the dead drifted past him.

"Hela, stop this please, " he begged. The illusion was dispelled. The people who inhabited this realm returned to their normal forms. Continuing the tasks they had performed in life, men and women, children and animals carried out their tasks.

Thor continued towards Hela's dwelling. Garmr sprawled across the threshold , glaring at his owner's uncle. "May I enter Angrboða? I have come searching for news of Loki."

Two women exited the house, the giantess looming over her daughter, protecting her form Asgard's royalty. . "Loki isn't here, Odinson" she growled. 

Thor laughed in relief, "Then he IS in Valhalla. Norns be praised. I had worried that his earlier actions had doomed Loki without hope of redemption."

"What do you mean, Thor? Loki in Valhalla? What happened?" Angrboða demanded, pulling Hela close to her.

"You remember I was to be crowned several years ago?"Thor told Loki's two lost loves the full story as he knew it. Finishing with Loki dying on Svartalfheim, he confessed that he did not know what had happened between Loki letting go on Asgard and arriving on Midgard. "I wish to consult The Books of Helheim in order to fully understand what happened to my brother."

Hela lead the way into the house and got the books while Angrboða remembered her duties as hostess serving Thor food and drink. Hela frowned over the tomes for some time before pushing them towards her mother.   
Hela stepped closer to her uncle, " My father's name nor his deeds are written in The Books of Helheim. Nor any of the other books I can read. He has managed to remove everything about himself . As such I can't tell you what he did nor where he is."

"How could he do that? I do not understand Seidr but that would be a very powerful working, even for a mage as strong as Loki, " Thor asked. 'I will never cease to be amazed at my brother's abilities."

Angrboða laughed fondly , "Not magic, Thor. Trickery. Loki was cunning as ever when he made that wager."

Hela pouted, "I was a child. I did not understand what he intended to do. Afi never told us about the rules or the books or anything really. We had to make up what we needed to do . Amma tried to help us as much as she could as did Daddy. No-one else cared to help."

Thor looked embarrassed, "The All-Father told us that he wished you to learn at your own pace and then ordered Heimdall to close the Bifrost to you. I thought he knew best. I see now Father frequently didn't have the well-being of Loki's family...nay our family at heart."" He paused, "But it seems mother and Loki defied him. I am glad of that. Now, I must return to Midgard. Is there any small task you wish me to perform in the meanwhile?"

Angrboða glared at him. "Do the boys know of their father's fate? Or has the son of Bor neglected to inform them also?"

"Narfi and Vali? I had forgotten about them and Sigyn on Vanaheim Now the Bifrost is repaired I must make haste to see them, "Thor declared. 

"And what of my brothers, uncle? Fen and Jorgy? " Hela asked . "Can you tell them of father's death?"

"I do not know where Jörmungandr is. Only that he is on Midgard. I will not disobey Father by looking for him. Nor will I venture into Lyngvi to meet with Fenris."He declared. 

"Uncle, please. If you will not venture to seek my brothers for my sake, then for our Amma's peace of mind. She would not want you to deny that knowledge from her kin."

Thor looked at her, annoyed" I do not answer to you, niece. I am the heir of Asgard. I outrank the illegitimate daughter of her younger prince. "

"Nay, Odinson, "Hela gathered in her full power. "Thou does not out-rank the Goddess of Death and the Ruler of Helheim, yet. If I order it, wilt thou advise them of our father's demise? I command that thou speak to my siblings of both full and half blood that they may mourn with us over our father's death."

Thor stared at her dumbstruck, "My Lady, I shall do as you command." He was astounded by her sudden assumption of power. Loki's daughter may still be a child by Asgardian reckoning but here in Helheim , she was the Queen and he had to defer to her.

A thought came to him and he could picture Loki smirking at him, "You're finally thinking. I'm impressed." If he followed Hela's request, he'd have unlimited freedom to roam over Midgard. He knew Odin wouldn't give up the knowledge of his nephew's whereabouts easily. It had been yet another leash on Loki. So he could stay there with Jane, with the Avengers for as long as he wanted. searching. A treacherous part of his mind revelled in his new found freedom.

Trying to conceal his excitement, he asked if Hela knew where her brother was. "Afi hid him too well. I cannot see where he is nor can I see where he isn't. "

Thor nodded, it was just what he had expected knowing that neither Frigga or Loki had found him. He kissed Hela on her cheek and then surprising himself, did the same to Angrboða. Bidding them farewell, Thor summoned the Bifrost and left .

"Why didn't you tell him Loki is still alive?" the giantess asked her daughter.

"Father has shown no signs of wanting Thor to find him. Even when they are in the same building he has not revealed himself. He appears to be the happiest I have ever seen him with his mortal. I do not wish to force his hand either way." Hela replied."And you? You know where he is too."

"I owe neither Odin nor his son anything. Frigga was the only one who helped us. From sympathy or guilt, it makes no difference in the end," her mother responded.

"No I suppose not, " came the quiet reply.

"Besides, Loki does what Loki wants. And cares not if any-one else suffers along with him. We've both learnt that lesson at too high a high price, "Body went back into the house as Hela stared at the glowing Bifrost mark.


	21. Chapter 21

Tony slept badly that night. No-one, not Loki nor Neville nor any of the playful illusions he had conjured for their enjoyment joined him in his bed. He'd sat outside the closed door for an hour before succumbing to the inevitable. JARVIS promised to update him if Loki asked for him. He pouted and without a second asked thought JARVIS what Loki was up to.

Loki was not in the building. Nor was he at SHIELD. Tony resigned himself to waiting. After ten minutes, he called Pepper for help. He wasn't used to being the person who waited. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thor thundered back into New Mexico causing an unseasonal flash-flood. Finding that Jane was back in London, he flew there. The Internet crashed with the number of pictures showing Thor waving and smiling at Trans-Atlantic plane passengers. 

Tony could now calculate how fast Thor was able to fly, if he wanted to. It didn't cheer him up. Not at all. Wrong Norse god. He still did the calculation..And now he wanted Loki to explain how...not happening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bruce had been trying to avoid the management of the medical group he was currently associated with. (Thanks Tony. I just want some peace .Now they have been looking for me.) He stuffed the letter into a bag and left with the supplies he'd ordered. Two more weeks and he'd be back in New York. He couldn't decide if he was looking forward to it or not. 

Natasha kept him updated with those things SHIELD thought he needed to know. That's how he'd heard of Loki's death and the fake. He'd been more saddened by Loki's death than he expected. Perhaps all those stories Thor told about his courageous, witty, intelligent, mischievous brother were the cause. Or perhaps the potential of a tragic life ended without a chance of redemption. A chance like Tony had or the one he was offering to Bruce himself.

He was amused by the idea that HYDRA had made a fake. He wondered who was going to get the job of telling Thor. He also wondered what Loki would have thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony was at his wit's end. There had been no sign of Loki for ten days. He was about to fly to the Helicarrier and demand to talk to Fury when JARVIS announced an unscheduled Quinjet approach. He needed Tony to over-ride the protocols as it was Clint piloting and Natasha wanted him down in the med bay.

"What's wrong, Jar?" he asked as the elevator whisked him downwards.

"I'm not sure sir. Agent Romanov has not given me any further information, "the AI wasn't helping his anxiety. As he reached the triage room , he saw Loki being supported by Steve. Blood was dripping from his chest down the dark suit he was wearing. "It's not as bad as it looks, Tony" Steve said. 

"It's not bad at all. You are all making a fuss about a trivial injury. I've had much worse in my life."Loki complained, slumped against Steve's arm.

Tony strode over and grabbed hold of the suit jacket and ripped it open. Buttons flying everywhere, the shirt underneath showed a line of bullet holes. He looked like he'd been strafed with a machine gun. "What the fuck happened Loki?"

"I was in Latveria, "the god started before slumping against Steve with a hiss.

"I asked what happened not where you were, "Tony repeated.

"He got caught in a fire fight between SHIELD and HYDRA, "Natasha said. "It wasn't his fault."

"Phil told me he wasn't at SHIELD. Fury told me he wasn't with you. What happened and why wasn't I involved if it was Avengers business?"Tony asked, feeling helpless.

Clint looked up from where he was setting up a medical tray, "He wasn't with us. Our mission was to find out what HYDRA is up to. A SHIELD mission, not an Avengers mission. But I, no we don't know why he was there."

Steve had now helped Loki to sit while Natasha had started to remove his jacket and shirt. She whistled softly at the wounds. Several had already healed and most of the rest were healing as they watched. Only two were now of concern. "I think there's still bullets in those, "Steve said.

"We need to remove those, Loki. "Natasha agreed, "We can't really take you back to base. Too many questions. Now who'd be the best? Normally I'd go with Bruce but he's not here. Do you know any-one, Tony, who'd help? "

"I'll do it, "Tony volunteered. At Natasha's sceptical look, " I've got a steady hand and I'm used to working in small areas. Plus Loki trusts me."

"Stark's right , Tasha. Besides we have to get back to base before we are too late and Phil starts worrying about us and sending out search parties, "Clint said.

Tony set about preparing his work station. Dummy holding Tony's prototype X-ray machine for gods so Tony knew where he was supposed to be withdrawing the bullets from. It took longer than he'd thought. He was worried about hurting Loki. Logically he knew that he wasn't hurting him but the memories of when Loki first arrived squirmed out of hiding. He smiled comfortingly at his lover. "Well, that's both of them. Do you think you need stitches or should I use one of the healing stones we have left? I think I should be able to get you some full spectrum anti-biotics if you need them."

"They are fine Anthony. Now those bullets are out, the wound will close quickly. I shall not need one of the stones. My thanks. You have the potential to make a good healer, " he spoke absently, a green mist hovering over the now cleaned wounds. Small pieces of cloth and other detritus were slowly moving out of the wounds into a tidy pile on the surgical tray.   
"When do we get to talk about why you where in Latveria , Loki?" Tony asked quietly. 

"Do we have to do this now?" the god asked irritated.

"Not if you're not up to it. You look like a hot shower and some food would be better for you right now than a debrief, " Tony compromised."And a decent night's sleep." For a moment, he thought Loki would reject the offer but the god nodded and followed Tony out of the med bay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And so it went on.

Loki continued to do whatever Fury wanted him to do. Except for assassinations. He merely pointed out that Fury already had many more than capable paid killers on his staff and Loki wasn't going to be another one.   
He also performed errands for the All-Father such as the one in Latveria. Tony wasn't convinced that all of those errands were for Odin but he didn't bother to share his thoughts with Fury or Coulson.

Tony spent his Loki-free times worrying needlessly about what he was up to and the dangers he faced. Or worse, attending SI meetings under the threat of Pepper. His time with Loki was spent in the lab, in bed, occasionally at various parties and social gatherings either as Neville or one time as Loki's favourite female form. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Bruce had been returning off and on to the tower. He was still uneasy about being in New York. He was currently sleeping in the spare room, formerly Pepper's and latterly Neville's following an unexpected Hulk-out in his own suite.   
Thor had been on Midgard for two months or so when he burst back into Tony's life, carrying Jane. He was having twinges of guilt about not looking for his nephew. He strode in to find Tony, Bruce and Neville eating. 

"My friends, Jane and I have a quest for you, " he boomed, beckoning Jane forward. "We are seeking one of my family. And Jane thinks you will be able to help."

Tony felt Loki fumble for his hand under the table. He grasped the seeking hand and gently squeezed it in re-assurance. "So Point Break, who're we looking for?"

"My nephew, Jörmungandr, one of Loki's sons. He was exiled here on Midgard and I wish to talk to him about his father, "he declared. "The All-Father hath hidden from sight these many years. And so I am trying to find him to tell him my sorrowful news."

"Why are you doing this now, Thor?"Bruce asked. "Loki's been dead several months. Shouldn't telling his kids be one of the first things your father did."

"I do not know whether or not my father told them but their sister has tasked me to do so. As far as I know from what Hela told me, Jörmungandr is hidden from view by the All-Father's Seidr and she is unable to find him. So Jane thought if you could detect the Tesseract then finding Jorgy should be simple." Thor beamed trustingly.

"Ok, "Tony said. "And how do you propose to find this Gorgy? I mean what are we trying to find. Gamma radiation? Asgardian energy signals? I mean we need to bound the variables . Jar..give us some pointers here."

Thor and Loki sat in stunned silence for half an hour while the three scientists and the AI argued, wrangled and eventually came up with a protocol which *might* work. The three leapt off their seats and headed to one of Tony's labs. Thor watched them leave with a touch of amusement. Loki with concern.

"I shall leave now. I have to return to Asgard, "Thor said suddenly."My nephew's fate is in good hands. Please tell Lady Jane I will return in a seven-day."

"I'll make sure she eats. If Jane is anything like Anthony then she'll be too caught up in her work to notice small things like it's time to eat. " Loki muttered, uneasy being alone in the presence of his brother.  
"My thanks. You are a good man, friend Neville. My shield brother is fortunate to have you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Tony excused himself some four hours later. Loki was in the kitchen was cooking or rather pretending to cook . "You alright Lokes?" he asked, startling the god.   
"Yes....No..I don't know, "he wailed." He saw Hela. He may have seen Narfi and Vali. Has he seen Fenris? Does Jane know any of this?"

Tony stared. This was Loki at his most open. He'd only seen this raw vulnerability twice before and it frightened him. "J, patch me through to the lab will you?"

"Tony? What's the matter? Supper ready so soon?" Bruce asked.''

"Jane, a quick question. Did Thor tell you about any other children he'd visited? Apart from Hela, I mean. Going by our legends, Loki had several other children. If these two exist, then do the rest? Thor talked about Loki's sons, not son." Tony asked, hugging the mage.

Back in the lab Jane frowned, "I'm not sure. Why are you asking me this? Thor just wants us to find Jörmungandr. You'll have to ask him about the others. He said he was in Vanna-something a few days before he landed back here. Does that help?"  
"Not really. I was wondering if I was missing some more variables. But never mind. We'll talk to him when he gets back. You and Brucie-bear need to get up here because Neville's cooked up something special.'' Tony said, his arms still around Loki.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thor returned eight days later. He was limping and had a large bite on his arm. He offhandedly explained it as Fen and Sleipnir, giving no more reasons to Loki's hidden frustration. Tony reported that they had found several interesting anomalies which would be worth investigating IF they had the technology to go that deep under the ocean. Thor shrugged. He'd get Heimdall to check if it was feasible to go there.

Jane had decided that she had done sufficient to help Tony and Bruce and she was missing her own research so she wanted to leave. After some flurried phone calls , she found Darcy and Erik had moved back to New Mexico. Thor gratefully flew her there , desirous of spending time with her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Darcy was bouncing with glee as Jane walked in. "Has he gone then?"

"Has who gone, Darcy?"Jane sighed as she struggled to escape from Thor's grasp and go to where her intern was waving several gossip magazines at her. 

"That creepy Neville. Look here, Tony's got a new girlfriend. She looks a lot more his type."

Jane and Thor glanced at the pictures. "That's not possible, "Thor rumbled. The air grew heavy and rain started to fall, "That's Loki."

"That's a woman, Thor. Not a dude, "Darcy laughed.

"Loki is a shape-shifter. I told you this before." Thor reminded them as Jane grabbed the top magazine to peer closely at the picture of Tony and the dark-haired, green-eyed woman.

"Ok, there's a resemblance, Thor. I'll give you that. But..."Jane trailed off marshalling her thoughts. "Okay. Here's what I think is happening. You feel guilty that Loki's dead. You feel you let him down because you should have been able to save him. And now, you are trying to tell his children about his death. That's a lot to cope with. Take his children to his grave and promise to be a better uncle. Make amends with them. Let go of your guilt. Then you might stop seeing Loki where-ever you look."

"Your words are as wise as ever my lady. But as far as I know, Loki has had no burial, no grave. His body was left on the wastes of Svartalfheim, "he coughed nervously." I have been too busy and I know not whether Father dispatched anyone to retrieve his body. But you are right. Loki should not remain un-mourned by his family."

It took Thor several hours to find the site of their battle. Four Dark Elf bodies showing Loki's economical death strokes were clustered close together. The arid air had caused them to start and mummify. He followed Loki's tracks which soon became over laid with Jane's as she had rushed to his aide. 

The place where Loki's body should be was bloodstained and surrounded by both warrior's boots and hoof-prints. Several horses and riders , he reckoned. Einherjar or the Warriors Three? Did Father know? Had he sent them?  
Returning to Asgard, he went straight to the All-Father's throne room. Odin, it seemed wasn't overly concerned that his son's body was missing. He admitted that he had sent guards to Svartalfheim and the captain had refused to bring home Loki's body. Thor's return and the crises surrounding the Convergence had put the matter out of his mind. There wasn't a reason for a ceremonial burial like Frigga's. 

"When I sought Loki's help, I promised him a return to his cell. I thought I saw him die. Now it seems like another of his tricks. What will happen if I return him here, father?" Thor asked, worried.

"If you fulfil your promise Thor and return him to Asgardian justice , you know the penalty for an escaped prisoner "Odin answered.

Thor nodded solemnly, "Death. I know you were lenient before because of Mother. Perhaps it would have been for the best not to be."

Odin sighed, "Go, my son. Do your duty." Privately, he planned to save Loki yet again. Bowing to Frigga's pleas had been a convenient excuse at the time. This time, he would use all of his powers to prevent Loki's death. He sent Huginn with a request that Loki return as soon as he could.

Thor grimaced to himself. He had forgotten Asgard's laws when he had released Loki .He'd hoped he could bargain with his father later for mercy after he and Loki had saved Jane and the Nine Realms. As he headed to the Bifrost Observatory, he pledged not to find Loki. Now he knew where he was, who he was, he hoped he'd stay hidden for both of their sakes. For his own safety. 

He had to inform the Avengers and he wondered who of them knew that Loki was living in their midst. He hoped Stark would not feel used when Loki revealed himself or was revealed by Thor. He'd seen how Tony had looked at Neville. Worse, he'd seen how Loki looked at Tony when he thought he was un-noticed. 

A small amount of jealously gnawed at Thor's heart. But he would save his brother this time.


End file.
